How did I end up in this mess?
by 10joinfei
Summary: Zane is scared of something that doesn't involve card games. With a high pressure career, an insane publicist, and a baby son, how is he ever hoping to be sane again?New Development: Darkness is back, and Xanders his target.Why cant life and love be easy?
1. The Meeting

Note: This was written for a school assignment (Don't you just love it when you can write fanfictions for school?), This is a forgiveness present because I'm going to be late with Taking Him Back's final chapter (expect it out late this week, or next week)

He was so used to being the oldest in the group he hung out with. He was not prepared to be light years younger then the other people in the room.

_How did I get myself into this mess_? He thought.

Zane was standing in the back corner of a room at the community center. The meeting hadn't started yet, and he was already looking at the clock to see when it would be over. His girlfriend, Alexis was holding onto his arm for dear life. Zane inwardly smiled, it wasn't everyday the tough queen of obelisk blue acted shy, or scared, or a combination of the two.

_As long as nobody recognizes you, your fine, you can get through this meeting_ He thought.

A woman walked over to the two of them.

"Hi! I'm Millie," She said, holding out her hand to Alexis.

"I'm Alexis, this is Zane, nice to meet you" Alexis said, trying to act friendly.

"You two look a bit young to be married" Millie commented.

Alexis blushed.

"Were not" Zane said, not making eye contact.

"Oh, well, good luck then" Millie said walking away.

Zane shot Alexis a look, as to say _I told you this was a bad idea. _

A man and a woman approached the pair.

"I'm Jessica, this is Paul, is this your first?" The couple asked.

"I'm Alexis, this is Zane, and yeah" Alexis said, holding onto Zane even tighter.

"Oh, well, good luck! Trust me, parenthood is lots of fun, once you get used to the lack of sleep" Jasmine said.

Paul just stared at Zane for a minuet.

"Zane, as in Zane Truesdale?" He asked.

_CRAP! _

Zane nodded.

"Oh, I knew I recognized you from somewhere. I didn't know you were married… so that's why you dropped out this season?" Paul said.

"Were not, and yes I needed time to think" Zane said.

Paul nodded.

A woman, about thirty, stood in the front of the room. Her nametag read _Hello: My name is Amber. _

"The meeting is about to start, please take your seats"

Zane sat down in one of the back seats, the less attention he attracted the better.

Amber began to talk about how wonderful parenthood was and how they were all about to take part of the most magical journey of there lives.

_How did I get myself into this mess? _

A recipe: How to end up in a room full of pregnant women at the community center:

Take your underage girlfriend to your business Christmas party

Accidentally drink the alcoholic punch at said Christmas party

Wake up the next morning and have a panic attack.

About a month later, receive a worried phone call from your girlfriend

have another panic attack

Tell your girlfriends parents, watch them have a panic attack

Convince your girlfriends parents that you'll stay with her and you don't need to get married at 22.

Get continually tortured by your best friend, who happens to be your girlfriends older brother

Tell your parents; watch them have a panic attack.

Convince your parents that you love your girlfriend and she doesn't need to have an abortion

Get tortured by your best friend/girlfriends brother some more

Tell your agent, publicist, and manager.

Get told that you probably just ruined your career

Get told that it needs to be kept a secret… And you have to drop out of the finals

Listen to your girlfriend have another panic attack

Be commanded by your parents to take a parenthood class

_And that's how I ended up sitting in room at the community center, with my nineteen year old girlfriend, and seven months away from being a father. Crap…_

END NOTE:

This is probably going to stay a one shot. But If I get enough feedback, I might make it my "I'm going to leave for the summer, but hey, why don't I do a quick fanfiction before I leave?" Fic…

10join

Fei!


	2. Flash Back

All right then… For some reason I really wanted to do this story more then the other…

--' and in my story… The events of the third season never happened (I don't want to ruin it for people who don't know yet) and Zane never went all HK… or if he did, he's back to normal. Why? Because I'm too lazy to make ANOTHER scenario for Zane to go back to normal (I've done three different ones already!) and Alexis is 19, so it's Christmas third year (lets just say she has an early birthday)

Anywhoo, I made a minor miss-calculation in my last chapter, so the scene in the first chapter is about five and a half months before, not seven.

So here's chapter two

CHAPTER TWO: How I ended up in this mess-a recipe for disaster.

Take your underage girlfriend to your business Christmas party:

Zane sat in the drivers seat of his car, Alexis was sitting beside him, looking nervous.

"Zane, thanks for inviting me…" Alexis said, twisting her curled hair around her finger.

"There's nothing to worry about"

I didn't say there was" Alexis snapped.

"You're nervous, you're playing with your hair," Zane explained.

"Your powers of observation never cease to amaze me, so what's with the sudden invitation?" Alexis asked.

"Do I need an excuse to hang out with you?" Zane asked.

"No, you just don't like parties"

"I have to go, but I haven't seen you in a while, I've missed you this year Lex"

"Aw, Zane's going soft… and trust me, I've missed having you around, Nii-san is a complete jerk this year, acting all high and mighty because he's ranked number one… although, tests don't prove much do they, he's still an idiot" Alexis said.

Zane half smiled, his annoying best friends superiority complex was always a source of amusement for him.

" Were here" He said, pulling up to the hotel.

2. Accidentally drink the alcoholic punch at said Christmas party

"Edo!" Alexis squealed, giving the younger boy an affectionate hug.

"A-Alexis-San!" Edo said, shocked.

"Oi, I haven't seen you since last school year!" Alexis said oblivious to the younger boy's blushing cheeks.

Zane cleared his throat.

"Hello Truesdale, Alexis, it's a pleasant surprise for you to be here," Edo said, maintaining his calm manner once again.

"Oh, yeah, I'm here with Zane" Alexis said.

"That's nice, have you had anything to drink yet?" Edo asked.

"No, we just got here" Alexis said, smiling.

_Why is she so happy to be around that cocky prick?_ Zane wondered (OHH HE'S JEALOUS!)

"Here, try this, you too Truesdale, it will loosen you up some" Edo said, signaling the waiter to bring them two drinks.

Alexis took a sip of the liquid, it was fruity, but not overly sweet, it was actually pretty good.

"Not horrible," Zane said, taking a swig of the drink.

They each had a second glass, than a third, and then some of the men began to drink shots. Zane, not willing to loose out to them, began drinking with them as well.

3. Wake up the next morning and have a panic attack

Zane woke up the next morning, his head slightly buzzing.

_Ugh, how much did I drink last night? _Zane thought, shutting his eyes tight.

He felt a cold blast of air, the window was open. He instinctively moved to the other side of the bed… and hit something soft.

Zane turned around, and instantly wished he hadn't. Alexis was lying on her side, away from him. Her quiet sighs were the only thing that ensured him that she was asleep. Her bare back was touching his own.

_Oh, My, Gawd SHIT!_ He thought.

He jumped out of bed and noticed there small pile of clothes on the floor.

He pulled his boxers, pants, and shirt over his head.

_SHIT, CRAP! I think I'm going to be sick!_ Zane thought, his breathing getting short and panicked.

4. About a month later, receive a worried call from your girlfriend.

Zane was sitting on his computer, he had promised his agent that he would answer some fanmail. After only two letters from hormonal teenage girls, he was ready to tear his eyes out.

"I Swear, I am hiring a person to do this for me!" Zane said, aggravated.

Just then, his phone began to ring. The screen flashed ALEXIS, and Zane reached for his phone. They had been, together, for a few years, but after, Christmas, she was officially his girlfriend. He liked the sound of the word "Girlfriend." He was possessive, and knew that, but it was nice to know that she was HIS.

"Hey Lex" Zane said, picking up the phone.

"Hi, Zane" Something was wrong, Alexis sounded worried, and like she had been crying,

"What's wrong?" 

"Zane, do you remember anything about, that night?" Alexis asked

"we've been over this, no we were both to drunk to remember what happened, only that it did happen" Zane said, his voice becoming tight, like it did every time that this subject came up between them. Nobody knew what had happened.

"Well, um, I don't think that we were safe" Alexis said.

"Lex, I don't understand female slang, you know that by now, what are you trying to say?" Zane asked.

"Zane, ever since, then, I've skipped, a lot, and today during Phys-Ed, I got hurt, and Miss Fontaine was asking me all these questions and told me that… there was a good chance that I was-" Alexis sobbed into the phone, unable to finish the sentence.

"Lex, do not tell me what I think you're telling me!" Zane yelled.

"Don't make me say it if you figured it out" Alexis sobbed.

"Alexis, let me call you back, I need to figure this out, just so were sure, Did Fonda tell anyone?" Zane asked, his heart quickening.

"N-No, I'm 19 so she isn't allowed to call my parents without consent." Alexis stammered.

"Well don't tell anyone, I'll call you back, I just need to think" Zane said, hanging up.

5. Have another panic attack.

"DAMN IT! DAMN IT ALL TO HELL! HOW WAS I THIS STUPID!???" Zane yelled, knocking a pile of books off his desk.

"SHIT! FUCKING SHIT!" Zane screamed, he needed to bash something in, now.

Zane's mother walked into the room.

"Zane, what's wrong, I heard yelling" She asked, worried.

The fuming, worried, and thoroughly pissed off man stopped his rampage.

"Nothing, I had an argument with Atticus and he pissed me off, that's all" Zane said.

"Well, try not to destroy your room, after all, its not like one little fight is going to change your relationship with him, he'll always be your best friend." Mrs. Truesdale said, walking out of the room.

_I think I need my inhaler_ Zane thought, passing out.

-Intermission.

Zane instantly needed an excuse to visit the academy, and soon. He called the chancellor, and asked if he could visit. They made a deal, Zane could come, but, Sheppard was let on to there little secret. He said that he wouldn't meddle. But Zane was still incredulous.

6. Tell your girlfriends parents, watch them have a panic attack.

It was Valentines Day, time for romance and fun!

Or if your Zane and Alexis, sitting in on a couch in the Rhodes Mansion.

"So that's the story" Zane said, pressing the nail of his index finger into his thumb, a nervous habit.

Dr. And Mrs. Rhodes were sitting in armchairs opposite of the couch. They exchanged glances and looked mad.

"I'm disappointed in the two of you, especially you Zane, I never expected you to be so careless" Dr. Rhodes said, staring harshly at the young man.

Alexis swallowed and looked down. Her parents were never strict, but they were by no means laid-back. There is one thing that's worse then when your parents are mad, and that's when there disappointed.

"So, what are you planning to do?" Dr. Rhodes asked.

Zane thought for a minuet.

"We want to keep the, child, we know that." Zane finally said.

"So, when are you two planning to marry?" Mrs. Rhodes asked.

Zane began to cough

_Whoa! That was not part of the agenda!_

"Mother, we aren't, not yet at least" Alexis said.

"What? Are you saying that you are going to put your own priorities ahead of your Child's?" Dr. Rhodes asked.

Zane, getting over his state of shock said:

"Listen, with all due respect, I do love your daughter, and I plan to take an active role in its life, but I am not ready for marriage" Zane said.

_Oh shit, we still need to talk to my parents, and there way worse then Alexis's _

"Zane, I understand you have a career, and Alexis, I understand that your still in school, but you can't honestly hope to have a normal life if you two are unmarried!" Dr. Rhodes said.

"Mom?" Alexis said, Mrs. Rhodes was still in shock.

"This is completely unacceptable! I wouldn't even expect your brother to be so careless, and if he was, at least he would take responsibility for it!" Mrs. Rhodes yelled.

_Atticus and responsibility? Isn't that an oxymoron? _Zane thought.

"Mrs. Rhodes, I understand what you want for your daughter, but did you ask what she wants?" Zane said, instantly regretting it.

_Zane, you are an idiot!_ He thought.

"Well, Alexis, what do **you **want?" Mrs. Rhodes said, every word filled with venom.

"I, I want to graduate, this year, the school already knows" Alexis said.

_NO! BAD! That was stupid to say Alexis! _Zane screamed in his mind.

"The school, knows?" Dr. Rhodes asked, sounding ready to sue.

"The nurse guessed it, and the chancellor knows because I needed permission to visit the school" Zane saved.

"I'm 19, I'm legal, so they didn't need to tell" Alexis said.

"Zane where do you live?" Dr. Rhodes asked.

"At home," Zane said painfully.

"And where is your child going to stay?" Mrs. Rhodes asked.

Zane closed his eyes, wasn't he always the well prepared man with the plan? There was a lot he hadn't thought of.

"I make enough money to buy a decent sized house, I just haven't had the time to look" Zane said, finally.

"Alexis, are you allowed to go to school in your, state?" Dr. Rhodes asked.

"I worked it out with the chancellor, I have enough credits to graduate, I just need to take my final exam," Alexis said.

Dr. and Mrs. Rhodes exchanged a glance.

"And you're sure this is what you want?" They both asked.

Alexis let out a meek, yes, and Zane nodded.

"We'll be right back" Dr. Rhodes said, leaving the room, Mrs. Rhodes behind him.

"You're scared of your parents aren't you?" Zane asked.

"What was your first clue? Trust me, if we don't keep them happy, there going to disown me" Alexis said, twisting her hair around a finger.

"And we still need to face my parents" Zane thought.

Eventually, Alexis's parents gave them their blessing, not without demands.

Zane had to buy a house, soon.

Alexis was to live there

Alexis needed to graduate as soon as possible, and couldn't duel in her state.

After graduating, Alexis was to return home, immediately

They had to promise to raise the child, together.

8: Get continually tortured by your girlfriends brother/best friend

Zane was waiting for Alexis at the train station. Alexis had completed her "early graduation" exams easily, and they under the order of her parents, were going house shopping.

The Train pulled up and opened a pissed off Alexis and an even more pissed off Atticus stepped out of the train.

Atticus ran over to Zane and tried to punch him.

"Poor" Zane said, catching his fist.

"How (punch) Dare (kick) You (punch) Knock (kick) Up (punch) My (punch) Sister!? (punch kick)" He said, trying to kill Zane.

"Atticus, you're well aware I studied martial arts when we were younger" Zane said, blocking every blow.

"I'm GOING TO KILL YOU!" Atticus said, charging at the older boy.

"Nii-San, STOP IT! RIGHT NOW, its not Zane's fault" Alexis said, pulling him back.

Atticus put his arm protectively around his sister.

"Zane, my parents might accept the fact, but I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" Atticus said, looking more and more stupid with every word.

"Stop with the melodramatics." Zane said, walking out of the terminal.

Alexis ran up to catch up with him.

"Sorry, he insisted on coming" Alexis said.

"Its alright, he'll keep things from being more awkward then they already are." Zane said.

"Zane! By the way, This is from Chazz" Atticus said, trying to slap him.

"Then Chazz slaps like a girl" Zane said, catching his hand again.

Alexis frowned.

"You told CHAZZ!????" Alexis said, slapping her brother upside the head.

"No, but I'm going back to the academy next week and I'm going to tell EVERYONE!" Atticus said.

Zane rolled his eyes and kept walking.

_How on earth is this guy my best friend?_

9: Tell your parents, Watch them have a panic attack.

After walking Alexis and Atticus to the train station, Zane exhausted, Buying a house? How the hell was he supposed to buy a house with Atticus breathing down his neck?

Zane opened the door to find his father sitting in his armchair, the TV was on.

Zane pulled off his shoes and walked inside.

"Where were you? You should not be out when you have a career to manage"

"I was out house shopping" Zane said, hoping it didn't sound as bad as it came out.

"House, shopping? Why would you do that?"

"The situation called for it"

"And what's the situation?"

"Is mom home yet?"

"Yes."

So Zane went and got his mother.

"Zane what's bothering you?" Mrs. Truesdale asked.

"It's… Hard to explain" Zane said,

_Stop being such a wimp!_

"Is it about your fight with Atticus?" Mrs. Truesdale asked.

"No, its not that,"

"Did something happen with Alexis?"

Zane began to speak, but the words wouldn't come out.

"Did you two get into a fight?"

"No, we're just having a new development in our relationship" Zane, felt very awkward talking about his love life in front of his father. Stating things as generally as possible just might get him out of the mess.

"Oh, well, I'm sure this will all blow over" Mrs. Truesdale said. She was glad that her older son was coming to her for romantic advice.

"Not really" Zane said, becoming uncomfortable.

"It may seem that way, but in a relationship there are only two things that will not ever end, marriage and children, and you're too young to be thinking about that,"

Zane didn't answer; he just stared shamefully at his feet.

"You are? Honey that's wonderful! You're going to ask Alexis to marry you!" Mrs. Truesdale said, grinning.

"No, not that one" Zane finally choked out.

Both of Zane's parents were quiet for a moment, until they finally realized what he was saying, Mrs. Truesdale stared in shock. Mr. Truesdale looked like he wanted to kill someone.

"You're not serious are you?" Mr. Truesdale asked.

Zane looked his father in the eye, and instantly looked away. The anger was burning at thousands of degrees.

"How could you be so CARELESS? I wouldn't even expect Syrus to make such a dumb mistake! Not only did you have a sexual relationship without consulting us first, but you weren't even safe? This better be a joke!" Mr. Truesdale asked.

"It was a mistake..." Zane said.

"How-How did this happen?" Mrs. Truesdale sobbed.

"It wasn't on purpose. It was at the Christmas party, we both had too much to drink and we couldn't drive so we rented a room at the hotel, I honestly can't remember anything past that." Zane said, noticing the quiver in his voice.

"You aren't planning on, Keeping it are you? You are both far too young to be parents" Mrs. Truesdale asked.

"Get Alexis and her parents here, we need to have a discussion." Mr. Truesdale said, the last thing he said to Zane until:

10: Convince your parents that you are capable of raising a child.

"Are you really convinced that the two of them can raise a baby? They're just Babies themselves!" Mrs. Truesdale said the next morning. they were sitting in neutral territory.

" Mrs. Truesdale, I understand your concern, but Zane is an adult, and so am I, we are perfectly capable with a bit of help." Alexis said, beginning to get nervous.

"I think we've handled enough to handle a child" Alexis said said.

"She does have a point" Mrs. Rhodes said.

"Okay, you two are somewhat responsible. A child is something completely different from what you have faced in the past" Mrs. Truesdale said.

"Responsible? If my idiotic son was responsible, we wouldn't be here would we?" Mr. Truesdale questioned.

"I think that's somewhat harsh, they need to learn from there mistakes, and it would be an even bigger mistake to give up the baby" Dr. Rhodes said.

"Dad, this is my child and I will decide what's best" Zane said.

The entire room fell silent.

"my only wish is that your child is as disrespectful and irresponsible as you are" Mr. Truesdale said, walking out of the room.

"Zane, your father is just, not over the shock. I may not agree with having a child out of wedlock, but you've made up your mind already haven't you?" Mrs. Truesdale smiled.

"Would you mind giving the adults a moment to talk?" Dr. Rhodes asked.

"Not at all dad, come on Zane" Alexis said, pulling Zane to his feet and walking away from the table.

11: Get tortured by Atticus, again.

The two of them decided to take a walk outside.

Only to find Atticus sitting outside the building.

"Atticus! What are you doing here?" Alexis asked.

"Mom and Dad wouldn't let me come, so I decided to wait out here!" Atticus smiled.

"So what happened?" He asked.

"None of your business" Zane said.

"Lexis! Talk or Zane will know every embarrassing thing you've done since you were five!" Atticus threatened.

"every embarrassing thing that happened, happened to you" Alexis said.

Atticus frowned.

"Zane, your dad looked MAD! He's going to kill you! Heh, all because you couldn't keep it in your- OWWW!" Zane smacked Atticus upside the house.

12: Tell your agent, publicist and manager.

It was the semi finals a few weeks after the meeting (wow, I do a lot of stuff with the semi finals don't I?)

Zane was sitting in the locker room, he had just won and was feeling great.

Alexis knocked on the door and went in, her stomach was beginning to show, but, thankfully, loose flowy tops were in that season.

"Zane! I'm so proud of you! You were awesome!" She said, giving him a hug.

Someone cleared there throat loudly.

"Not interrupting something am I Truesdale?" His agent Gorilla asked.(get it, Gorilla, Monkey)

"who are you? Fan girls aren't allowed in here" Kagura, his publicist asked.

"This is my girlfriend" Zane said.

"Oh! So sorry! Zane, aren't you supposed to tell me these kinds of things?" Kagura asked.

Zane rolled his eyes.

"Perfect, you're very pretty! I'm going to need a bit of information about the two of you, purely so its around if someone finds out about the two of you" Kagura said grinning.

"What's your Name?"

"Alexis"

"Where did you meet?" 

"School"

"Oh! So you're a duelist? What year are you?"

"This was my third year, I graduated early"

"Really? Why?" She asked

Zane shot Alexis a look.

"Um, can I not answer that?" Alexis said.

"I promise that I wouldn't tell anyone, its just so I have it on file if any rumors are spread" Kagura assured her.

"Kagura, its because… I have a health condition and my body's not able to handle the stress" Alexis lied.

_No! You idiot, she's a human lie detector!_

"Really? What's the problem?" Kagura smiled at Zane.

"I, have… Epilepsy" Alexis bluffed.

"But you can watch duels?" She asked.

"Um…"

"Zane, would you care to tell me what's going on?" Kagura smiled.

"No"

"Okay, here's the deal. Zane you tell me what's going on, or I am going to spread one NASTY rumor about the two of you, and my word is law, you could get kicked out of the pro league if its bad enough"

Zane stared at Alexis, she nodded.

"werehavingababy" Alexis rushed out.

Unfortunately, Kagura understood her.

"Zane dear, WHAT THE HELL?" Kagura said.

13: Get told you probably just ruined your career.

Alexis had left and now Zane was alone with Kagura.

"Zane, I've worked hard to maintain your smart, clean cut image. And then you get your girlfriend PREGNANT?" She yelled.

"Kagura, you are my publicist, I will not allow you to scold me,"

"I don't believe you would do this on purpose. How did this happen?" She asked.

"We got drunk" Zane answered.

"Okay, no more parties for you,"

"Oh, I'm so disappointed" (Note the sarcasm)

"Zane, you are keeping it and raising it with her right?" She asked.

"Yes" Zane asked, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Good, you are going to be soooo Johney Depp!" She said.

"Who?"

"American Film Star, increasingly famous and sexy, has several children out of wedlock but stays with the mother" She explained.

Zane stared at her.

"But…"

14: Get told you have to drop out of the finals

"Zane, you can't show up in the media until I work out a plan," She said.

"That means, you can't be in the finals tomorrow, not until I figure something out"

"What?" he asked.

"You, Finals, Tomorrow, a big NO-NO! we'll say you had a family emergency… Zane, you couldn't have gotten her pregnant AFTER the season?"

"This has to be kept a secret until further notice, don't show your face in public until I give you the word" Kagura said, walking out of the room.

"That Bitch" Zane muttered.

15: Listen to your girlfriend have another panic attack.

(A month later)

Zane walked into the small house he now shared with Alexis. The season was over, and neither of them left the house much. Kagura had let the word "slip" that Zane had a girlfriend (although, not that she was pregnant) and now the paparazzi bombarded them whenever they were in public together.

The lights were off, meaning that she was probably asleep.

Walking into his bedroom, he noticed a small figure sitting on the bed.

"Lex?" He said.

"Y-yeah?" She answered.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"y-yeah, I'm fine"

"Your not, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I, don't, know, I'm just… upset. I told Mindy today and she totally flipped out, she called me a slut and told me she was embarrassed to be my friend" Alexis said.

"Its one girls opinion, why do you care?" He asked.

"its just, she was one of my best friends, if she doesn't accept it, who will?" Alexis asked.

"Give her time," Zane said. Listening was his strong point, not consoling.

"I just think, nothing good has come from this, both of our careers are down the tubes, your father wont speak to you, my brother wants your head on a platter, and I missed so much in school this year!" She cried.

"Lex, look, you can start a career once the baby is a bit older, and I'm allowed to duel next season, my father, well, he'll come around eventually, once he has a grandson, your brother isn't a threat, and what's so important that you missed?" Zane said.

"According to Atticus, I missed Jaden coming out of the closet for some foreign exchanged student named Johan, and I'm going to miss graduation!" Alexis said.

"Jaden… coming, out of the, He's Gay?" Zane asked.

"Um, Duh?" Alexis said.

"and how are you so sure it's a son?" Alexis asked.

"It will be, I know" Zane smiled.

"Get some sleep, you need it" Alexis said, walking out of the room.

16: Be commanded by your parents to take a parenting class.

The phone rang bright and early.

"Hello?" Zane asked groggily 

"Zane, I want you and Alexis to meet your mother and I for breakfast at the country club" Mr. Truesdale commanded.

"When?" Zane was dumbstruck, his father was actually TALKING to him!

"8"

8:00 sharp.

"Zane, Alexis, you two look tired" Mrs. Truesdale said, sitting down at the table.

"I was upset last night over something a friend of mine said, and Zane listened while I vented it out, You taught your son to be a good listener!" Alexis smiled.

"Thank you," Mrs. Truesdale smiled as well.

"You two need to learn to become responsible parents" Mr. Truesdale cut the woman's conversation short.

"Dad, were in public," Zane reminded.

"I honestly don't care, you got yourselves into this mess, and your going to take responsibility, I want you two to take a parenting class" Mr. Truesdale said.

Zane was about to object when Alexis answered for him, though, not what he wanted.

"That might not be such a bad idea"

"See, I told you they would be willing to take the class, its very helpful, and it wont be too embarrassing because there will be other couples there," Mrs. Truesdale said.

"Its every Monday at noon, at the (blah blah) community center." Mr. Truesdale said.

_Wow, that's sure to be super fun!_ Zane thought (note the sarcasm)

End ch 2:

All right, I decided to make this story in installments that aren't cliffies.

Anyway: Tomorrow, My friends and I are filming the ULTIMATE COSPLAY MOVIE

I'm going to post it online, so when it is posted, check it out (as a bonus, you get to see what I look like in RL form)

10join

Fei!


	3. After the Meeting

YES! Testing at my school is O-V-E-R OVER with a capital O!

Anyone take the regents? Its so annoying how you have to sit for about a billion hours doing nothing until they collect your test, so here's an idea I came up with during the test

DISCLAIMER  
Roses are red,

Violets are blue (well, not really)

I don't own GX

So please don't sue!

Chapter 3

Alexis and Zane were sitting across from each other in a shaded booth in a small diner.

"Zane, are you alright? You seem more, stressed then normal" Alexis asked.

"It's unimportant"

"What? I'm curious now!"

"Graduation is next weekend, right?" Zane asked.

Alexis thought about it for a second, and then her face lit up when she guessed what he was thinking.

"Can we really go?" Alexis asked, exited.

"I want to tell Syrus, about what happened, before he talks to Dad,"

"I'll take that as a yes?" Alexis asked.

"Only if you promise not to tell anyone" Zane's eyes became cold and serious for a second.

"If I can go to my own high school graduation, yes I promise" Alexis smiled

Zane rolled his eyes and nodded. She really could be adorable.

Alexis smiled and began to dip her pickles into her chocolate shake.

"Lex, that's disgusting" Zane stared at her (actually, I've tried it, its good with non sour pickles)

"Really? I don't know, I just really wanted to see what chocolate and Pickles taste like" Alexis shrugged and went back to her disgusting combination.

"Cravings… that's what those are called?" Zane asked.

"Yeah, why do you think I've been eating so much peanut butter lately? I used to hate it. So you were actually paying attention?" Alexis asked.

"I'm not familiar with any of this stuff, Zane said

Alexis smiled

"That's what you have me for"

Zane got up to pay the check when a girl came over.

"Is that good?" She asked, pointing at Alexis's craving induced meal.

"It is when you're pregnant…" Alexis mumbled.

"What was that?" The girl asked.

"It is if you like chocolate" Alexis corrected herself.

"Oh, my friend was wondering why you were eating it, thanks though" The girl ran away.

"Who was that?" Zane asked.

"Oh, she's the sister of a girl I used to take dance with" Alexis BS'D (Bull Shitted)

Alexis began to panic, obviously she had just told a girl, probably a fangirl, that she was pregnant. To make things worse, Fangirls like to network, this could be bad/

Zane took the answer and left it be.

-On the boat to Duel Academy Island.

Alexis was morning sick, again. She had spent at least two thirds of the 3 hour ride puking in the bathroom, leaving Zane to awkwardly stare at Dr. Rhodes.

"Is this, normal?" Zane asked.

"Take out a book on pregnancy Jr. you still have another few months until she'll get over morning sickness, and then you get mood swings" Dr. Rhodes smiled.

"So, you're not mad?" Zane asked.

"I was, I've grown to accept it, but you are marrying my daughter eventually, I refuse to let my daughter be a single mom" Dr. Rhodes lost his smile for a moment, and then laughed at the look of shock on Zane's face.

"No, I'm kidding, but seriously, you are planning to right?" Dr. Rhodes smiled.

Zane mumbled something that sounded oddly like _I have no clue_, but one can never be sure.

Mrs. Rhodes walked out of the bathroom, looking a bit worse for wear.

"Not the wisest idea to go on a boat while morning sick is it?" She smiled.

Zane felt relived, at least Alexis's parents didn't completely hate him, or blame him. His mother was so exited about becoming a grandmother that she didn't even acknowledge that the child had been an accident. Zane's father, well, he didn't glare every time that Zane walked within two miles of him, and he had mumbled something about being glad that he was taking responsibility the last time they had run into each other.

Alexis finally emerged from the bathroom, slightly green, but much better.

At almost four months pregnant, she was definitely beginning to look pregnant, her stomach growing a bit. Every time she got dressed in the morning she joked about how fashion was definitely smiling on their child, making the big, flowy tops very popular that season.

"Why did I want to come again?" She asked, going to sit on one of the benches in the common room.

"You wanted to meet Jaden's boyfriend" Zane said dryly

Alexis shot him a look, and then began to laugh.

"That too… How much time is there left on this cruise?" Alexis asked.

"Not much honey, remember, don't tell anyone who doesn't need to know." Mrs. Rhodes said, sitting next to her daughter.

-Academy Island.

The ferry arrived with several students waiting for there families.

Atticus was standing with Jaden, Chazz, Syrus, Johan, the whole gang.

The Rhodes and Zane went off of the boat.

"Nii-San!" Syrus said, running towards Zane.

"Hey Syrus, I need to tell you something," Zane mumbled quietly.

Jaden and a blue haired boy he had never seen before ran over to Zane.

"KAISER!" Jaden said, flashing a peace sign.

"Yuki, who's your friend?" Zane asked, knowing who it was already.

"Oh, This is my boyfriend Johan!" Jaden said, not having any insecurity about the matter at all.

"Nice to meet you, Syrus talks about you all the time" Johan said, sticking out his hand.

"Likewise" Zane said, giving his hand a shake.

Alexis ran over and gave Jaden a hug.

"Jaden! How's school been!?" She said.

"A-Alexis, Hey! SWEET!" Jaden said, returning the hug.

_If he wasn't gay, I'd put a stop to that cuddle fest _Zane thought amused.

"Alexis, you've gained weight," Jaden pointed out.

"Real smooth Slacker, Alexis, how is out lovely lady, you get over that Mono?" Chazz said, trying to give her a hug.

"I'm better, and it's alright, I don't mind the weight gain" Alexis said, avoiding the hug.

"Aren't you supposed to eat less when you're sick?" Johan asked smirking

Zane shot Alexis a look that screamed _don't tell them_.

Atticus walked over and stood next to Zane.

"Don't worry your conceited little head off, I haven't told anyone; neither has Mindy the Chancellor or Fonda." Atticus said in a tone so low that only Zane could hear it.

Dr. Crowler stood in front of the lawn with a mega phone.

"OKAY! EVERYONE, THERE IS A DINNER BANQUET IN TWENTY MINUETS, YOU ARE FREE TO TAKE A TOUR OF CAMPUS UNTILL THEN, BUT DO NOT GET LOST!"

Zane signaled Syrus to follow him and they went to Syrus's dorm.

"I thought you were blue?" Zane said when they walked into the yellow dorm.

"I liked Yellow better, so what did you want to tell me?" Syrus said apologetically.

"Syrus, this is top secret, you can not tell anyone, understand?" Zane said seriously.

Syrus got exited, it sounded like Zane was going to tell him something super top secret that nobody knew.

He nodded and looked at his older brother.

"You know how Alexis left school early this year?" He started.

"Yeah, she caught Mono and wanted to graduate early so she wouldn't miss too much" Syrus said.

"Well…" Zane started.

"NO WAY! You gave her the Mono? Is that why you dropped out of the finals, because you were sick?" Syrus said sure he was right.

"No, Alexis didn't have mono and neither did I, She's… Alexis and I are having a Baby" Zane said.

_I'm getting too soft, I'm nervous to tell SYRUS something! _

Syrus laughed.

"That was funny! Wait! You don't do funny… You're telling the truth?" Syrus looked shocked.

Zane rolled his eyes, as to say "OF COURSE YOU IDIOT!"

"What did dad do?" Syrus asked.

"He's pissed," Zane said.

"How did that happen? Mindy's Magazines say that you two are dating, but when were you two together?" Syrus asked.

"We've been together since freshman year, and why are you reading that girly crap?" Zane said, not understanding the question.

"Um, because its. WAIT? You two have been intimate since freshman year, before you two were even dating? Since when are you into the friends with benefits thing?" Syrus said.

"No we weren't, Syrus please state the question in terms that I can understand." Zane said, getting lost in translation between girly and non girly terminology.

"You and Alexis, when did you two start, doing it? You know S-e-x?" Syrus blushed.

Zane sweatdropped. Then he began to get angry.

"It was only once Sy, we had too much to drink and when we woke up the next morning, neither of us could remember anything" Zane explained.

"Oh, that makes much more sense… so that's why Alexis had to leave, and that explains why she gained weight too, so when are you getting married?" Syrus asked exited.

_Why does everyone automatically assume were getting married?_

"Were not, not yet at least, I have to go, just remember, this is top secret. And stop reading those girly magazines" Zane said, walking away from his dumbstruck brother.

At dinner Zane sat between Alexis and Atticus.

"Alexis, how are you feeling, with that Mono?" Mindy asked snottily.

"Much better Min, it was so nice to have my friends behind the whole time" Alexis said sugar sweet. Only the three of them (Alexis Mindy and Zane) Knew the real meaning behind the comment.

"Alexis! How are you, you look much better. Have you gained weight? You look better not so scrawny" Jazz said, running over to Alexis for a hug.

Alexis began to eat her shrimp with an appetite that rivaled Jadens.

"Whoa, go Lex!" Haselberry cheered.

The Chancellor walked over to the table, smiling when he saw two of his former students sitting there.

"Alexis, Zane, how have things been?" He asked.

"Were fine" Zane answered.

"Did you tell them?" He said quietly.

"Our parents know, not everyone here knows" Zane mumbled

The Chancellor nodded and proceeded to go to the next table.

"Tell who what?" Chazz asked.

Everyone who knew became silent.

"What?" He asked again.

Syrus began to look guilty, and of course, Chazz picked up on it.

"Syrus, what's the secret?" Chazz asked.

Syrus stayed silent.

Johan walked up behind Chazz and noticed the look on Syrus's face.

"Sy, what's the matter? Does it have to do with Alexis being pregnant?" Johan asked.

Everyone turned towards him.

"Alexis being what?" Jaden asked, doing a spit take.

"Pregnant, its pretty obvious if you just think about it, she's eating food she claims to hate, she's gained weight, she left school because of a disease that she claims to have caught, but she would have been back a month later if she really had it, and Ruby over heard you and Alexis talking about it on the phone." He explained.

"Ruby? Who the hell is Ruby?" Zane asked, aggravated

"His monster spirit" Atticus explained.

"Oh, it was supposed to be a secret? I'm sorry" Johan said, running out of the room as fast as his little yaoi bishie butt would allow him too.

Chazz went to slap Zane; Zane of course, caught his hand before contact.

"You were right. Chazz does slap like a girl" Atticus said, trying to lighten the mood.

Everyone stared at him, then at Alexis.

"Are you really?" Jaden asked.

"Oh Alexis I'm so happy for you!" Jazz said, trying to give her a hug.

Zane stood up and gave a look to everyone at the table.

"If any of you tell ANYONE what you just heard, I will personally make sure that you are blacklisted from every dueling league in the world" Zane said, beginning to walk away.

Alexis got up from the table and ran to keep pace with him.

Chazz went to follow the two of them, but something, or rather, someone, stopped him.

"Chazz, leave it be," Atticus said, putting his hand on Chazz's shoulder.

Zane walked down the hall way in silence. He went to a familiar venting spot, the lighthouse.

"Zane, its okay, they were going to find out eventually" Alexis said, watching her boyfriend begin to turn red from anger.

"Alexis, do you love me?" He asked.

Alexis paused.

"I thought that didn't need to be said" Alexis stated (Quoting InuYasha here)

"Do. You. Love. Me?" He asked again. (Okay, breaking out into fiddler on the roof songs was not on the agenda) His mind was going at a million miles a minuet, he was pissed, and shocked, and relived at the same time.

"Zane, I love you so much it scares me" Alexis said, beginning to cry.

"Lex… that's exactly how I feel" He said, pulling her into a hug.

"Zane," She began to say.

"What do you want to do?" he asked. When they had first found out, he had made every decision, it was time he let her have a voice.

"I, I don't know, I love you, and I… I don't know what to do, I want to have this baby, and more so, I want to have it with you. And I want to stop thinking about myself and think about what's best for the baby…" Alexis said.

Alexis was cut off by Zane's lips crashing into hers. As horrible as it was to know, this was her first real kiss, well, that she could remember.

His tongue ran across her bottom lip, and she granted him entry. He dominated every inch of her mouth. She tasted like sweets, he tasted like mints.

Alexis ran her fingers through his hair, and her ran his hands down her arms, giving her the chills. He started to inch up her shirt a bit, resting one of his hands on her swollen stomach. The other hand crept up a bit further.

Alexis stopped to get a sip of air, he never kissed her, and he never touched her like this. A hug, a pat on the back, occasionally a peck on her cheek. She blushed, half from the new sensation, and half from knowing that he had probably touched her like that before, among other things, but neither of them knew it.

"Z-Zane" She gasped.

Zane kissed her again, this time more aggressively, backing her up towards the light house.

His hands went up her shirt again, the first one climbing up, the second one getting its turn to rest on her stomach.

Zane suddenly laughed and smiled at her.

"What?" She asked.

"It kicked" He smiled.

Alexis let the words process in her head for a minuet, then her hands rested on her stomach.

"It did!" She smiled too.

"Come on, we need to get back to the school, it looks like its going to rain" Zane said, putting his arm around her.

"Zane?" She asked.

He looked at her.

"Why, did you do that?" She asked.

"Not really sure" He answered truthfully.

"Where did you learn to do that?" She asked.

"That?" 

"Everything" She blushed at the memory.

"Truth be told, I was winging it."

"Why, haven't we done that before?" She asked.

"Too Awkward knowing what we had done in our drunken glory" He had finally said what they had both wanted to say.

"Its sort-of unfair," She said, sitting on one of the statues in front of the school. The sky was dark, and nobody was around.

"What is?" He asked.

"We have to deal with the aftermath, but we never got to do the first part, not that we remember anyway." She looked away from him.

Zane smirked.

"Why cant we?" He asked.

"Why cant we what?" She asked.

"You know… it's not like there would be any big consequences," He said, beginning to blush at the thought of re living that night, though, this time with the memories of what had happened.

"Zane I was kidding" She said.

"I'm not" He smiled at her.

His enthusiasm was contagious.

Zane began to walk back to the lighthouse.

"Zane! We cant, not on a dock! I cant believe I'm even considering this"

"Stupid, In the lighthouse, I know how to get inside, nobody will know where we are." Zane smiled.

If you had asked Alexis a few months ago if it was possible for her to be sneaking into a lighthouse to have sex with her boyfriend who had gotten her pregnant when they were both drunk, even if you had left out the part of her boyfriend being Zane, she would have laughed in your face and asked you if you were on drugs.

But, in an odd way, she was loving every second of it.

-The next Morning.

Alexis threw up off the dock again. Zane was still sleeping inside the lighthouse. She was trying not to wake him up, as neither of them slept much the past night, a combination of the tiny cot that they were sharing and that they were… other wise engaged.

Every once in a while, she would put her hand on her stomach, to see if the baby was awake yet.

_Yup, awake and kicking_ she thought.

"Hey baby, how are you this morning? I'm sorry if your daddy and I kept you up, you know, you shouldn't be rejecting everything I eat, its good for you! Your not going to be able to live on peanut butter, pickles, chocolate, and shrimp once your out." Alexis laughed at the fact that she was talking to her unborn child. A wind came and whipped Alexis's hair around, tickling her face.

"LEXI!" Atticus said, running towards her.

Alexis gulped, how was she supposed to explain this?

"Hey Atty, what's up?" She asked.

"Where were you last night?" Atticus asked, smiling.

"For your information, Zane and I were not in the mood to face anyone last night, so we spent the night at the light house" Alexis said huffily.

"You, spent the night at an abandoned light house with a boy!?" he asked, smiling bigger.

"Atticus, its not like anything he hasn't done before- I don't even know why I'm explaining this to you" Alexis said

Atticus's eyes bugged out, he walked over to Alexis and put his arm around her.

"So, how was your first conscious time?" he asked.

Alexis thought about her options, she could get mad, which would mean that he would run around telling everyone. Or she could play it cool, in which case, he might leave her alone, after some teasing.

"Not bad actually" Alexis smiled at the dumbstruck look on her brothers face.

"You, aren't going to? You're not getting ready to kill me are you?" Atticus asked.

"Not at all, what time is it by the way?" Alexis asked.

"Its about eight, you still have a few hours until the grad match and the graduation ceremony. I told mom and dad that you spent the night in my room and went for a walk with Zane this morning" He smiled at her.

"W-why? Your never this cool about this stuff!" Alexis had her turn to be dumbstruck.

"eh, what matters is that your happy" He smiled and gave her a hug.

"Thanks Atty" She hugged back

"But, DON'T EVER DO IT AGAIN!" He yelled.

"Lex, go back to my room and take a shower, your bag's in there anyway, I swore all the guys to secrecy about, what happened last night" Atticus said.

Alexis gave her brother one final hug and walked away.

Atticus smirked, in her hormonally imbalanced state, she couldn't see the obvious trap he had set.

Atticus climbed the stairs to the top of the light house, two tiny cots had been pushed together to make a makeshift bed. Zane was lying on one of them, the covers pulled over his face.

Atticus smiled at his sleeping best friend, and walked over to the cot.

"RISE AND SHINE GOOD BUDDY!" Atticus yelled, pulling the covers off of him

(Note: there is some very un-pc language in the next section, and no, I have no problems with homosexuals, they're people just like everyone else)

Zane yelled.

"Your freaking fag, what were you doing?" Zane yelled. Thank goodness for both members involved, his boxers were on.

"You horn-dog, what were you doing?" Atticus yelled back.

_Your sister, duh_ Zane snorted at this particular possible answer.

"Sleeping" he stated.

"Ass whole, go take a cold shower already" Atticus yelled.

-Breakfast

Alexis and Zane were doing there best not to look each other in the eye at breakfast. Johan, looking a bit nervous, sat as far away from them as possible. Jaden looked like he wanted to say something, and Chazz looked like he was either jealous or mad or/at Zane, maybe both.

"Alexis?" Jaden asked.

"What Jay?"

"Well, Johan was explaining to me the whole, pregnancy thing, yesterday; doesn't it hurt the baby when you eat?" He asked.

Alexis sweatdropped.

"No, the baby isn't in my stomach Jaden, its in my, you know what, never mind" She said. She was not so eager to discuss her uterus during breakfast.

"Jaden, you're doing the Grad Match again, right?" Alexis asked.

"Yup, Johan better get his game on, now that he has the Rainbow Dragon!" Jaden said, pointing at his boyfriend.

_He has a, rainbow dragon, ugh bad mental image there_ Zane thought.

(Think about it people)

"Jaden, this is going to be- RUBY STOP THAT!" Johan yelled, pointing in to midair. Jaden and Chazz could also apparently see what was going on.

Alexis smiled at Zane, and then made the crazy sign next to her head.

Zane snorted, amused.

The Chancellor then walked up to their table,

"hello boys, Alexis. Zane, you may want to see this" Sheppard handed him a magazine.

"I don't read tabloids" Zane pointed out.

"Its not, its duelist weekly, and, you may want to see what there main story is this week" He said, holding out the magazine.

Zane cautiously took the magazine out of his former teachers hands. He had an idea of just what it might be.

Page 6

**PRO LEAGUE DUELIST ZANE TRUESDALE'S BIG SECRET:**

_**It is not uncommon knowledge that Zane Truesdale shocked millions of dueling fans by dropping the finals to his rival Edo Phoenix. He claimed that he had a 'Family emergency' and would not talk to the press any further. Well, he did, but not what you would expect. **_

_**Several sources, anonymous tips, and now Truesdale's publicist have confirmed, Zane Truesdale and his Girlfriend Alexis Rhodes are expecting there own little bundle of joy.**_

Zane did not read any further, too shocked to.

"Zane?" Alexis asked, concerned.

Zane closed his eyes and handed the magazine over to Alexis.

She scanned the article quickly.

"No, how could anyone have found out?" Alexis asked, worried.

"Truesdale, don't blame anyone on the island, we get our mail slowly, most of Japan probably knows by now" Sheppard said.

"Zane, calm down" Alexis said, grabbing his fist.

-Later that day.

Judai had just succeeded in defeating the Rainbow dragon. Not that Zane had seen the match, he was to busy screaming at his publicist, well, now ex-publicist.

"You know, your probably going to end up re-hiring her eventually" Alexis said, sitting with Zane.

"Better to make her know her place" He said.

"Well, now we don't have to keep it a secret anymore do we?" She smiled

Zane nodded.

-One Week Later

Zane was sitting in the waiting room at the doctors office. His blue hair shielded by a hat. Alexis was talking to the doctor about something, and had insisted Zane wait for her.

Now officially in her second tri-mester, she had an appointment every two weeks. The season had started going in full swing, and Zane would soon have to stop avoiding the press, with his new, less pushy publicist. This hadn't stopped him from reading virtually every book on pregnancy cover to cover, the doctor sometimes joked that Zane could do her job for her.

Alexis stepped out of the room, looking slightly, more worried then normal.

"How'd it go?" He asked.

"F-fine" She stammered.

They had gone out for dinner quickly (Regrets of never learning to cook were slowly arising) and had returned home.

By the time Zane was ready for bed, Alexis was already asleep in there room.

Zane reached over and brushed the bangs out of her face before giving her a quick kiss.

"Zane, sit down" She commanded.

He complied, sitting right next to her.

"I was talking to the doctor today, and she said that we could find out the gender, so I did." She smiled.

"You're not very patient are you?" He asked

"That's all you have to say?" Alexis asked, mad.

"Mood swing?" He asked.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been angry, I'm a terrible person!" She said.

"Its going to be a boy, you were right" She said, finally.

Zane smiled when it hit him, he was going to have a son, like he had wanted.

He pulled her into a hug and both of them decided to sleep.

"I'm so happy that this happened" Alexis said.

"Me too" Zane smiled.

He was finally happy. He had a beautiful girlfriend, and was going to have a son. He lived in a comfortable house, had a great career and made enough money to last him quite a long retirement. And more then that, he was happy. Maybe this wasn't such a mess after all.

A/N: Ugh, so cheesy… and OOC (sorry, I was hyped up on my passing the earth science regents!) So, yeah, next chapter is going to be more Zane torturing…

10join

Fei!


	4. Zane Torture

4: Meet the Rhodes

YOU ARE ALL SADISTIC! You all love to see Zane suffer don't you? Well, LET THE TORTURE BEGIN!

A/N: Alexis's family is based on my over protective, pushy, and oh so very large family (With all the force feeding, talk of 'nice Jewish boys you should meet' and third degree to any outsiders) And there is a mention of a Bar mitzvah, and an upcoming scene that takes place at one, I will be posting an explanation of most of the traditions on Youtube… soon. I'll have a link to it both in the next A/N and on my bio. And yes, I'm Jewish, which is why I'm using a bar mitzvah instead of something like a sweet sixteen (I've been to tons of bar mitzvahs but never to a sweet sixteen)

_Screw this I am leaving. I did not deserve this! _

Zane was standing against the wall of the Rhodes living room, desperately willing this day to be over. Today was Atticus's 21 birthday, and as such, he was having a party. Worse then that, his _entire_ family had come. Of course, Atticus had failed to mention that he had several, little, tween, cousins, of the female variety. Several of whom read magazines like they were the bible, there word was law.

"Are you really a certified doctor?"

"Did you really once throw a hissy fit because there was no mineral water in your locker room?"

"You know, you really shouldn't dye your hair, blond is a pretty color!"

Zane stood in awe, He most certainty wasn't a doctor, he didn't throw hissy fits (in public at least)and his hair was only blond when he was a baby, it became blue over time!

"Girls, cut it out" Alexis warned her younger cousins.

"Aw, we were just asking him if what we read was true" One asked.

"Girls, nothing written in magazines is completely true… they like to make things more interesting then they sound." Alexis explained.

"Like how you two are planning to elope?" One asked, sounding disappointed

"Planning to elope? Where did you read that? And no, its not true" Alexis said.

Zane had insisted they didn't come, especially since people tended to tip the paparazzi where they would be together. True reason: He was not in the mood to deal with more stares from overprotective uncles. Like the three that were heading his way at that very moment.

"Girls, back off" The oldest uncle asked.

All of the girls made pouty faces and returned to the party.

"Alexis, your aunts want to talk to you" Another one asked.

Alexis nodded, walking towards the gaggle of women on the other side of the room.

"So, you're Zane, yes?" One of them asked.

"I'm Zane" he repeated.

"And you're the father of Alexis's child" The older one asked, his tone calm.

"Yes."

"And you're her fiancé, oh wait… your not planning on marrying her, right?" One accused.

"Not in the near future, no" Zane said calmly, he was used to these questions by now.

"Zane, what is your profession?"

"I'm a pro league duelist" Zane answered, although, he was sure that they already knew the answer.

"And where do you live?"

"In a house outside Domino"

"How much do you make a year, Zane?"

"About five hundred thousand a year" (Yes, speaking in dollars, don't make me convert it to yen)

"And, what do you plan to do, after you retire?"

"I'm going to work in Kaiba Corp."

"Really? What department?"

"Production and accounting"

"And where does Alexis fit into this? Is she going to work as well? Where is she going to live Zane? Will you give her money? Are you planning on marrying her, or someone else in the later future? Come on Zane, you call tell us" The middle uncle asked sleazily.

"She and I currently live together, and plan to continue that after the child I born. I do not use most of the money I make, and it is in a savings account. She does not, and never will have to work unless that is what she wants to do. And if I get married, I imagine it will be to her" Zane said monotone.

"If?" Zane realized he had just given the wrong answer.

"So, marriage isn't the priority, money, your career, that's what's most important?" One asked.

"The child is most important, therefore, I need to continue to work and keep to my plans for the future"

"Where did you and Alexis meet?"

"Through Atticus, he introduced us"

"When?" 

"about four years ago"

"When did you start dating her"

Zane paused, it would not be the wisest thing to say that she became his girlfriend AFTER they had slept together.

"About a year and a half ago" Well, it wasn't completely untrue.

"When did you first sleep with her" The skeezy one asked.

"The same time she got pregnant"

"Are you some kind of idiot?" He asked.

Two choices, either one: Own up to the fact that they both had been drinking when it happened. Or two: Say it was an accident.

"Under the influence of Alcohol, yes I would say that my IQ drops a bit"

"So you're a drinker Zane? That it?"

"No, I was unaware that what I was drinking had alcohol, as was Alexis" Zane said. Okay, so the first few drinks he was unsure whether they were alcoholic or not, after all, Edo was drinking them. By the time he was doing shots, he was already wasted.

"Really? So you are some kind of idiot"

"No, a friend of Alexis, who is younger then she, gave us the first few drinks"

"Guys, leave him alone, He's a good kid," Dr. Rhodes to the rescue.

"Good kid my ass, did you know that he-"

"yes, I know the whole story, **the whole story**, Alexis's likes him, Atticus is a good friend of his, he comes from a good family, and he's a good kid, don't hassle him," Dr. Rhodes said.

The three uncles shot their brother a look, and then mouthed to Zane.

"You're not out of this just yet"

And then walked over to the women.

Who of course, were given orders to give Zane the third degree.

"Oh honey, my daughter reads about you all the time, she was so shocked when she found out that you were dating. Even more so when we found out she was pregnant. Would it be so much to ask if someone told us?" one of the Aunts asked.

"That was not up to me"

"Oh, so, is that your real hair color, its unusual"

"Its my natural hair"

"oh, well, hopefully your child doesn't inherit it, imagine, the teasing from having blue hair"

Zane stared at her, he never got teased.

"So, you and Alexis aren't getting married? It's a bad relationship when one can't wait until the wedding night"

Zane coughed.

"We are both too young to be thinking about marriage" Zane commented.

"Nonsense, your older then Atticus aren't you?"

"Alexis is only 19"

"Nonsense, plenty of girls get married before there 20"

_Yeah, ones who are ether forced or super clingy_

"Alexis doesn't want to get married yet" Zane said. Whether or not this was completely true was unknown, but he was sick and tired of having to answer the same questions over and over again. Why couldn't Alexis explain that they weren't married, nor were they planning to, once in a while.

"She, doesn't?"

"Then we have to go talk to her, she is making the biggest mistake of her life"

The aunts finally left him alone.

"Hey! Zane!" Atticus walked over.

"Atticus"

"My family, nice people aren't they? Yeah, there a bit pushy, but who can blame them? My sister could have any guy she wanted, yet wants to be a teenaged single mother who is living with a guy with no intentions of marrying her…" Atticus smiled

"Atticus are you drunk?" Zane asked, smelling the distinct sent.

"Of course not!" 

"how much have you drank tonight?" 

"One, two, four, seven, this is my eighth" Atticus smiled.

_Nobody can tell the difference, he always acts drunk._

Alexis walked over to the two of them, looking pissed.

"Zane, can I talk to you for a second?" She asked, sweetly.

"Your brothers drunk" He said, when all else fails, blame Atticus.

"Zane, why did you sic my family on me?"

"I was sick of being asked the same questions by people who already know the answers"

"And who said I never wanted to get married?" She asked.

_RED ALERT! ALEXIS IS TALKING MARRIGE! ABORT, ALL SYSTEMS DOWN, DOES NOT COMPUTE! _

"You said that you didn't want to get married automatically because we were having a child." Zane said.

"That doesn't mean I don't want to marry you someday"

Zane paused,

"I want to marry you, just not until I know I want to and that I am ready" Zane said.

"Oh, well, that's okay then… I guess… Sorry about my uncles, there a bit overbearing." Alexis apologized.

"A bit?" he asked.

"okay, so they are total crazy's… not my fault, now you see where Atticus gets it from" Alexis smiled.

"Lex… Okay, so your family's crazy, you haven't met mine yet…. There worse" Zane said.

"When would I meet your family?" Alexis asked, confused.

"I went to your brother's birthday, I happen to have a family event coming up"

"Isnt your brothers birthday in October?" Alexis asked

"its my little cousins Bar Mitzvah in a few weeks, you're my date"

"I am?"

"Do you not want to go?"

"no, I want to meet your family!" Alexis smiled.

Zane rolled his eyes,

_She has no idea what she's getting herself into…_

-Next morning.

Alexis was asleep. She had been asleep for who knows how many hours, and showed no signs of intelligent life.

Zane's phone began to ring.

"Zane, I have your duels lined up for the next three weeks, tomorrow your dueling then on next Wednesday your dueling and on the seventeenth your dueling Johan Anderson." Gorilla reported. (Its after graduation, remember)

"I understand" Zane said, hanging up.

_Johan? Finally, I can get my revenge, okay, so people would have already known, but still, he's the one who said it… I'm going to cream that little punk. _

Zane decided to take a jog around his neighborhood, it was too early for most of the people to be out, but the best thing was that there were no paparazzi allowed within three miles of their neighborhood.

Jogging was a somewhat lame thing to do, but he wasn't exactly going to go to a gym where people could watch him. Especially girls, he learned from weight training during school, he had to drop phys-ed because girls kept skipping classes to watch. It took patience to run around the block four times just to keep in shape.

He began to run, letting the air keep him cool. After the first lap around the block, all his pressure lifted off of him. During the second lap he quickened the pace. Unfortunately, he tripped on a bike left on the sidewalk.

_Shit that hurt_ he thought, pulling himself off of the ground.

"I'm so sorry! I need to stop my brother from leaving his things everywhere" a teenaged girl ran up to him, and helped him up.

"its alright" He said, noticing that his knee was bleeding.

"Oh no, you're bleeding…" She gasped.

"its okay,"

"No, if you leave it alone it'll get infected, I have antiseptic in my house, it'll only take a minuet, come on" She said, grabbing his hand and dragging him.

"Stop it, its okay" He said.

"No it isn't, its my fault that this happened" She said.

"Its fine," He said, trying to stay out of this girls house.

"No, it isn't, um, I'm sorry, what's your name?" She asked, dragging him into the house.

"Zane..." He mumbled.

"That sounds familiar… not sure from where though, I'm Hannah by the way" she said.

_Okay, so not a fangirl… better._

"Hannah, really, this is not necessary" he said, as she opened the door.

"yes it is" She said.

She sat Zane on a chair in what he assumed was the living room, and left to get whatever she was planning to get.

A small-ish boy ran into the room.

"Oh no, not another… sorry, my sister is a bit neurotic." He said.

"Its fine" he said.

"Bobby, get out of here, Zane got hurt because you left your bike on the sidewalk again!" Hannah said, holding a bottle and a bandage in her hand.

"Zane? that's an unusual name... well, sorry about your knee" Bobby said, running out.

"I'm not hurt" Zane insisted as Hannah began to put the liquid on his knee.

_Crap that stings_ he thought.

"here, sorry about all the trouble Zane, your new here right?" She asked.

"I moved in a few months ago" he said.

"oh, OH! You're the man who lives with the really pretty blond girl right? My brother and his friends all have a huge crush on her… she's what? Your sister?" she asked.

"Thank you, I need to go now" Zane said, getting up and beginning to walk out.

"Sorry for all the trouble… have a nice run" She said walking out of the door.

Zane walked out of the house, and decided to finish his run later. Finishing his lap around the block, he walked into the house.

Zane stepped into the bedroom, finding Alexis missing.

"Lex?" He said loudly.

His answer was given by the familiar sound of vomiting.

He stepped through the door to the bathroom, finding Alexis kneeling on the ground, and making homage to the porcelain goddess.

"You aright?" He asked.

She wiped her mouth and began to brush her teeth.

"yeah, I'm fine, can I have some peanut butter? Maybe some shrimp?" She asked.

Zane stared at her.

"Peanut butter and shrimp? That's what is going to make you sick" Zane said.

Alexis spit into the sink.

"All I want is some peanut butter and shrimp! Is that too much for you to ask? This is not fair, all I want is two things we already have in the house!" She cried.

"Its okay, really, I'll get your food, just calm down" he backed out of the room.

Alexis began to use mouth wash. He took that as a sign of him being off the hook.

"Shrimp and Peanut butter, ugh, when is this going to end" he said, pulling out her requested breakfast.

Alexis walked into the kitchen and plopped down at the table.

Zane handed her the plate.

"Thank you" She smiled at him, taking a bite of the shrimp, dipped in the peanut butter.

(Haven't tried this one, it sounds disgusting)

Zane pulled out a bagel and took a bite out of it. He leant on the counter.

"Where were you this morning?" She asked.

"Jogging" He said.

"Really? What happened to your knee?" She asked.

"I tripped over some kids bike, his sister insisted that it was going to get infected without proper care…" he explained.

"which one?" She asked.

Zane stared at her.

"The left?"

"Which **neighbor **Zane? I can see which knee it is." She asked.

"Hannah? Small with purple hair" He said.

"Oh, the one with the bratty brother" Alexis remembered.

"Neither of them follow dueling" he said.

"Yeah, they have super strict parents, no TV or anything like that…" Alexis explained.

Zane raised his eyebrows

"She comes over about once every other day to drag her brother away from our house… she's kind of obsessive" Alexis answered.

"I noticed"

"Noticed what? That she's prettier then me now that I'm so fat?" Alexis asked worriedly.

"No, that she's obsessive"

"Oh, that's okay then!" She smiled.

_Please let her stop all of this soon_ he thought. Mood swings, morning sickness, cravings, this was all to annoying.

"I'm dueling Johan" He said suddenly.

"When?" She asked.

"In three weeks" He said.

"Isn't he a rookie? Why is he dueling you?" She asked.

"Don't know, don't care…" he said.

"That's mean, are you still mad at him?" She asked.

"I have a right to be"

"Let it go, he's nice, he didn't know it was a secret"

"Hn"

"That isn't a word Zane… I'm going out" She said, looking for her keys.

"Where?" he asked.

"To see my family, you don't have to come if you don't want to, I also need to get some shopping done, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a nice dress when your pregnant? Seriously, couldn't your cousin have that… whatever it is, after I loose the weight?" She said, grabbing a few more things and placing them into her bag

"It has to be a certain amount of time after your thirteenth birthday" Zane said.

"I'm kidding Zane. I'll be back in a few hours"

"Are you going to be okay?" He asked.

"I'm a big girl, don't worry!" She smiled, walking out of the house.

_Exactly why I am worried. _He thought.

He decided to take a nap, when he wasn't dueling, there really wasn't that much to do. He used to help his mother out with things like shopping or running errands, but now that he wasn't living at home anymore, he had no distractions. Alexis insisted on doing all of the housework all by herself. He was bored.

He climbed on his bed and closed his eyes/

_I freaking need a hobby_

He awoke to a sharp tickle in his side.

"Haha, stop that! Hahaha!" He laughed.

"You're ticklish?" Alexis smiled, this was a new development, and good to know.

"HAhaHaha!! No" He laughed

Alexis smiled bigger and tickled him even harder.

_Shit, I cant do anything because I might hurt her!_

"Alexis stop that HAHAHA! Before I make you" He commanded.

"You don't sound as threatening when your laughing" She stated.

Zane finally grabbed her wrists and stopped the torture.

"Oh My Gawd, ZANE TRUESDALE IS TICKILISH! CALL THE PRESS!" She yelled/

"Cut it out" he said.

"I was kidding, chill Zane"

Zane glared at her.

"I don't like being tickled" He said.

"Okay, I get it, no tickle. I get it!" She said.

"Why did you do that anyway?" He asked.

"It was that or kicking you awake, you're surprisingly a heavy sleeper" She said.

"Have a successful trip?" He asked.

"I went shopping with my mother Zane, there was no way I was coming back empty handed" she said.

Zane stared at her quizotically.

"She's the house wife of a plastic surgeon, she needed a hobby, she picked shopping." Alexis explained.

"Well, at least your mother doesn't cut your hair every ten seconds, that's my mom's hobby" he said.

"She, Cuts your hair?" She asked.

"She used to be a hair dresser, and thinks my hair is always to long," he said.

"Your hair is too long" She said, ruining her fingers through the teal locks.

"Don't even start with that, I hate getting my hair cut"

"Sorry, but it is, you do need to get it cut" she said.

"Don't worry, I'm sure my mother will attack me with the scissors next time she see's me" He rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure too!" She smiled.

-Two weeks later: four thirty PM

"lex, are you ready yet?" he asked for the third time in the past ten minuets.

"Don't even start, I'm so fat this is ridiculous, can we please just ditch?" she yelled from the bathroom.

"Its not an option, I'm on thin ice as it is, there are very few things worse then being stuck in a room with a bunch of prepubescent teens who are likely to mob me before candle lighting, and your not fat, your pregnant" Zane said, in a tone that indicated that he couldn't care less.

"I'm coming!" She said, she walked into the hallway wearing a black dress (that by rule covered her shoulder and was below the knee) her stomach stuck out, but in a way that showed she wasn't fat, just pregnant.

"You look pretty" he said, it was true of course, but he knew she was feeling very self conscious.

"Your not bad yourself" She smiled and began to walk out of the house, were a taxi was waiting to take them to the restaurant where the party was taking place.

Zane was wearing a black suit that made his odd color hair stick out, but in a good way.

"I'm warning you, my uncles are worse then yours" he said.

"And your aunts?" She asked nervously.

"like my mother, not horrible, but watch out for my cousins" he said.

"Why?" She asked.

"The younger set are evil" he explained.

"every one thinks that about their family" She said.

"You have no idea" He said.

They stepped into the restaurant, which had been decorated, to Zane's distaste, in a Duel Monsters theme. He knew that Matt was a fan of the game, but this was going to be bad, he knew it.

A photographer was taking pictures of all the family members who had already come

(I don't know how it's done at other types, but at Bar Mitzvahs the family has to come early to take pictures, major pain in the ass)

"Zane, Alexis, how are you two?" Mrs. Truesdale ran up to them.

"Oh, Zane! Your hair is too long! Come on, I have scissors in my bag," She said, dragging her oldest son into the bathroom.

"Mom, you'll get hair on my suit, you can cut my hair later" he said.

"Fine, but it has to be done!" She said, walking towards Alexis.

"Thanks for coming Alexis, you look nice" She smiled.

"Thank you! You don't look half bad yourself" She complimented.

Mrs. Truesdale smiled.

Mr. Truesdale connected eyes with his son, nodded, and then looked away.

A younger boy ran up to the couple.

"Zane!" He tackled the man to the ground, getting laughs from most of the family.

"Matt, how was your service?" he asked. (_**Service- You have to lead a Saturday service and then you're an adult, its more complex then that but I'm not going into detail)**_

"Boring and in Hebrew, why didn't you come?" he asked.

"Alexis was sick this morning"

"I'm sick every morning" she grumbled.

Matt stared at his cousin's girlfriend.

"You promised that you were going to stay the whole time" He reminded.

Alexis smiled at Zane's obvious distaste at this reminder.

"Promise not to drink" Mrs. Truesdale cut in with a knowing smile.

"I wasn't planning on it" Alexis grinned at her own joke.

Zane, of course, was whisked away by his uncles at this point.

"Zane, what the hell did you do?" One of them asked (the authoress is way too lazy to write names out)

Zane stared at them.

"We haven't seen you in a few months, except in the press, but what the hell?" one asked.

"I believe you already know, meaning I have no interest in explaining to you what happened" Zane said with a straight face.

The men stared at him, and then began to laugh.

"Zane, you really screwed up this time, I have to say, its going to be fun to watch"

Zane glared at them.

"Don't take it that way, your mother already told us everything, and we figure you already got enough shit from your dad, so have a ball tonight, we wont hassle you"

Unfortunately for him, the aunts were not in on this agreement.

"Zane, introduce us to your girlfriend" they rushed over.

_This is going to be hell. _

To Be Continued!

Does anyone watch Death Note? THEY FUCKED UP THE ENDING! THEY COMPLEETLY CHANGED THE MOOD OF LIGHT'S DEATH!!!! (In the anime as to the manga)

AGHHHH!!!! Well, at least they kept Misa's death the same…

10join

Fei!


	5. Tradition in a nutshell

A/N: Go on and search "Fei's Tradition in a Nutshell", my user account on is SangoRulz. (Please watch it, its an explanation of most of this stuff, and I worked super hard on it!)

Roses are red, Violets are blue, I don't own GX, so please don't sue.

Last time.

_This is going to be hell_

"This is Alexis" Zane introduced.

"So nice to finally meet you! His mother has told us so much about you!" They smiled.

"Really? That's so nice," Alexis smiled.

"Zane, you picked a great girl, such elegant birthing hips" one of the aunts gushed.

Zane instantly felt his eyes bug out. Alexis blushed bright red, that was… an interesting comment, at the least.

"are you alright Zane? Alexis? Oh dear looks like there embarrassed! Don't worry. We wont say anything else, I promise, nothing about how you two are far to young to be parents, and that Matt wants you to autograph all the favors" Matt's mother walked over to them.

"What?" Zane asked.

"Nothing Zane, go, Matt has to take a picture with all of his cousins" She said, pushing Zane over to the photo area. Leaving Alexis with Zane's insane aunts.

"So Alexis? How are you? Have you driven Zane insane yet?" One asked.

Alexis laughed.

"He's very tolerant, but I think he's going to crack sooner or later"

"Does he insist on doing anything all the time, like carrying laundry baskets or anything?"

"No, well, he tries, but I don't want him to do anything for me that I can easily do for myself" Alexis said.

"Honey, a little tip for you, enjoy it while you can, because once that babe's born, your not going to be getting any offers" The aunts all laughed manically.

Alexis didn't know how to answer that one.

"Have you two even thought about marriage yet?" they asked.

"um, well, we've discussed it… we decided that neither of us are ready yet" Alexis said.

Zane's normally very calm and sweet aunts transformed by this comment.

"NOT READY? HOW THE HELL ARE YOU READY FOR A CHILD BUT NOT READY TO BE MARRIED!? I SWEAR! YOU TWO ARE IN FOR A SURPRISE, BECAUSE THERE IS NO WAY THAT ZANE IS NOT GONG TO BE MARRIED! There is no way, now we've humored you two up to this point, but this is serious" They yelled in unison (which was very impressive if I say so myself)

"I-its- that… were… um… we promised that…. The child… is the priority… but… um… we promised, to… keep the child and raise it together… but we… don't want to… get married because of the child…" Alexis stammered, there was a reason that Zane handled the questions! Alexis did not like making people unhappy, Zane did that for a living…

"You aren't going to get married dammit?" they asked.

"We are, but not until we're sure its what we want" Alexis said, she had that answer practiced.

"I Can't believe that I'm saying this, but I think that is an acceptable answer" one aunt said.

"What?" The others turned to her.

"If they promise to get married, its an acceptable answer" the aunt said.

"**DO** you promise that you two are going to get married?" They asked.

"You're going to have to ask Zane that one, but, I guess I agree too" She stammered.

The aunts nodded and walked, or rather, lurked, towards Zane.

"Zane dear?" they started off sugar sweet.

"Yes?" he asked monotone.

"Alexis is a very nice girl" they said, their unison was getting creepy.

"That's why I like her" Zane inwardly rolled his eyes at his cheesy answer. He needed to get this interview over with, _Just make them happy Zane, they'll leave you alone. _

"Like? You mean you don't love her?"

"I love her… but not just because she's nice, its more complicated then that" he said, hoping to confuse them.

The aunts all broke out into grins.

"Looks like you are mature enough" they smiled.

"but…"

Zane glanced at them like _But? What!? _

"You are going to get married, eventually, right?" He asked.

"Yes" he said, he wasn't sure when that became part of the promise, but since it wasn't completely untrue, he was okay with saying it, as long as it wasn't in front of Alexis.

They all glowed at the answer.

"Good" and with that they walked away.

Alexis walked over to him.

"okay, your family is worse" she smiled.

"there pushy-er, they get what they want" He said, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to the stair well of the restaurant

"Zane… did they ask you the same things they asked me?" she asked.

"I didn't hear what they asked you"

"If we were, going to, get… you know… eventually" Alexis said, avoiding his eyes.

"Its funny" he said.

"what's funny?" She asked, knowing that he was changing the topic.

"Lately, you've become very timid, and I've become a pushover and I've been disrespectful" he said.

"You're not a pushover! You've been a pushover to try to make people happy, making you not disrespectful, and I've always been like this around people i'm trying to impress" Alexis explained.

"Lex" Zane stared at her.

"Okay… so I've become shy, deal with it" Alexis pushed him.

"I take it back"

From downstairs, they heard the DJ begin to set up, a loud beat protruded the walls

Zane made a face.

"Aw, don't be like that, we don't have to dance or anything" Alexis smiled.

"Wasn't planning on it, trust me. I'm just not so thrilled to be here" he said.

"Who are we sitting with?" Alexis asked.

"The older set of my cousins" Zane answered leaning against the wall.

"How old are they?" She asked.

"about, twenty five…" He said

"oh, I was worried they would be four" Alexis smiled.

"Matt is the youngest," Zane explained.

"He looks up to you" Alexis smiled.

"He's a good kid… he reminds me of myself when I was younger"

"But he's very enthusiastic, and he tackled you…" Alexis said with disbelief.

"I said when I was younger, as in, before I met Atticus" Zane blew hot air.

Alexis laughed.

"Pre-Kaiser?" She asked.

Zane nodded.

"Who gave you that nickname anyway?" she asked.

"Banner called me Mr. Kaiser in his class, and it stuck" He said.

"Weird, thinking about it, if it wasn't for him, we would never be as close as we are now" Alexis smiled.

_Actually, that thanks goes to Edo for giving us the drinks, because we'd still be in an awkward not really dating, but not just friends stage if we hadn't gotten drunk that night. _

"Sorry, I blocked out my entire senior year… especially the end" He said.

"yeah, I guess your first loss was not exactly something you'd want to remember, or I guess your first tie either" Alexis said, thinking she understood what he said.

_Actually, its more when I tried to tell you how I felt that day on the dock, and you just snuffed me off. _ (Its in episode, forty something, the one when Chazz starts his crush on Alexis… though In my opinion, its just because she doesn't want to be reminded that he was graduating)

Zane didn't answer.

"Come on, your mom is going to get suspicious if where not down there soon" Alexis said, beginning to climb down the stairs.

Zane finally opened his ears, and did hear that the party was beginning to start.

Zane put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a peck on the cheek.

When they stepped into the main room of the restaurant, the DJ was calling up Matt's grandfather.

"Zane, what's going on?" She asked.

"That bread is the Challah, its traditional bread, your grandfather says a prayer over it and cuts it, then the party has officially begun" Zane whispered.

Matt's grandfather stood over the challah and said something Alexis couldn't understand. He then sliced through the bread and passed a piece to Matt and the other younger cousins.

"What did he just say?" Alexis asked.

"It's the prayer over the Challah, it was in Hebrew"

"What did he say?"

"Blessed are you (I'm not allowed to write the word, but it's another word for Gawd) our Gawd, ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth" Zane said quickly.

"Can you, speak Hebrew?" Alexis asked, mesmerized.

"hell no, but I've picked up a few things"

"Yo! Zane!" A man ran over to Zane and slapped his hand.

"Michael…" Zane said, it was more of a question.

Michael was an interesting looking 'dude' he was embracing the whole 'grunge' look, unshaved, wearing a wool hat, dressed in a very, vintage, suit.

"Can you believe it, my rents made me miss a gig to come to this lame ass party… So where's the girl you knocked up?" He asked.

Zane stared at his older cousin.

"Would you mind refraining from using such vulgar language, there are thirteen year olds here" Alexis asked, stepping forward.

"Feisty! You sure know how to pick 'em Zane" He smiled

"I'm Zane's much cooler older cousin Michael" He said, sticking out his hand. It was covered in rings.

"I'm Alexis" She said, noticing the tattoo on his wrist.

Zane noticed it too.

"It's not real, chill" Michael said, showing off the skull with pride.

"hold on, bar's open! Either of you want something?" He asked.

"Underage" Alexis stated.

"Don't make an ass out of yourself" Zane warned Michael

"Too late!" Michael ran toward the bar.

"He was… interesting" Alexis commented/

"He thinks he's going to be the new big star, but his band sucks, and he dropped out of law school to be in said sucky band" Zane said, monotone. (Ugh… Unfortunately, a certain eldest cousin of mine who shares the same name did just that)

"Whoever said you weren't funny was wrong" Alexis grinned.

Zane and Alexis sat down at their assigned table which was labeled (by someone sick and twisted who loves to see Zane suffer) "Pro League"

There were three or four other couples sitting at the table, most about Zane's age, as well as Syrus. As the DJ began to play good music, they got up to dance.

Zane and Alexis talked to Syrus and whoever stopped at the table, mostly other cousins. Nobody had noticed the celebrity in the room… yet.

The music stopped, and a large cake was rolled out, the cake had fifteen large candles. Matt stood up behind it and began to read poems. After each poem, someone came up to light a candle and take a picture. Once in a while, Matt would say something that all the cousins would find funny. About five or six candles in, Zane cursed.

"What's wrong?" Alexis asked.

"I'm next" Zane said.

"How do you know?" Alexis asked.

"There's an order it goes in" Zane said.

Alexis nodded and listened to the next poem.

"The next group of people are really keen,

Uncle Ryo (how creative am I?) exercises like crazy, and Is always really lean.

Aunt Shirley is really neat.

But she's also generous, kind and sweet.

Syrus, well, he'll grow one day (that one earned a laugh)

But I look forward to our birthdays every may.

Zane, you think that every one is insane.

We all know that with this family dueling isn't a fad

And Zane, you're going to be a great dad.

Hanging out at your house is always heaven

Will Uncle Ryo, Aunt Shirley, Syrus, and Zane, please come light candle number seven.

Zane rolled his eyes and stood up without hurry. He walked to the front of the room, earning several whispers all saying one thing:

"HOLY SHIT THAT'S ZANE TRUESDALE!"

_Just great… Thanks a whole lot Matt_

The family took a picture as all the teens who were unaware of the presence of out favorite torture toy began talking quickly and quietly.

"Don't say anything" Zane said, slinking back into his chair.

"Don't mind him, he's going to get mobbed once the hora's done, and he's pissed" Michael sat down at the table, definitely not sober.

"The horror? What horror?" Alexis asked. (Took that one from rugrats)

The entire table cracked up.

"The Horror? That's hysterical! The **hora** is a dance that you do after candle lighting" Syrus laughed.

"oh" Alexis said, blushing at her mistake.

"Remember when Syrus threw up after going up in the chair?" Michael said.

The rest of the table laughed, of course, with the exception of Syrus and the still pissed off Zane.

Every once in a while, a cousin or two would get called up and leave the table.

"Zane, are you okay?" Alexis asked.

"I **am** fine" Zane said.

_He's speaking like a mad man again. _

"Zane, you promised Matt you would stay the entire time, remember?" Alexis said.

"Michael, can I have a sip of that?" Zane asked.

Michael's face lit up.

"Awesome! Zane is loosening up!" he said, handing over his drink.

"What is that?" Alexis asked.

"Tequila" Michael laughed.

"One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor, isn't that your motto?" A female cousin asked.

"No, its who needs law school when you have a guitar! But that one works too!" Michael laughed

Zane gulped down the drink.

"Zane, your driving" Alexis reminded.

"We took a cab" Zane rolled his eyes.

"Don't over do it, you know what happened last time" Alexis warned.

Zane gulped down another one.

"Actually, I believe neither of us remember what happened" Zane said, a drunken heat forming on his cheeks.

_Oh gawd, it is getting to me!_

Matt had apparently finished the candle lighting, because the music started again, and everyone was forming a circle on the dance floor.

"Zane? Stop drinking!" Alexis ordered.

Zane laughed and put the drink down.

_Oh my… he's drunk! _Alexis thought in a panicky mode.

"All rite, we need Matt's uncles and cousins to help him here" The DJ announced.

A song in Hebrew (or what sounded like Hebrew, Alexis wasn't sure) began to play and everyone started to move. Alexis was completely confused, she had no clue what was going on. The men were circling in one circle, and the women in a circle surrounding the men's circle. People who Alexis identified as Matt's family were in a circle inside the men's circle, and Matt was being raised on a chair held by Zane and a few of the older male cousins.

_What? The? Hell? _

They took Matt down and a few other people went up.

Zane ran out of the circle.

"Dance" he ordered. His eyes were slightly glazed, indicating that he was still slightly drunk.

He pulled Alexis into the circle, she stood between Syrus and Zane, holding both of their hands, completely confused, but having fun none the less.

The DJ told everyone to rush. Alexis had no clue what that was, but everyone ran toward Matt. Then the music stopped and people returned to their seats.

"What was that?" Alexis asked, tired and confused.

"The hora" Syrus said, feeling happy that for once in his life, he was informed.

Alexis shrugged and sat.

"Incoming" Michael murmured, pointing to the dance floor, where many teenaged boys were coming over to their table.

"Shit" Zane mumbled.

"Are you really Zane Truesdale?" One asked.

"Are you really going to be a dad? I thought that was a rumor!"

"Your going to duel this season? Right?"

"You suck, Edo Phoenix is much better!"

"Your girlfriends hot!"

Zane grimaced at the last two he heard.

The other members of the table looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Yes, Yes, Yes, that's your opinion, and she's taken" Michael answered.

Zane held in a laugh.

"Guys, leave him alone!" Matt ran over to the table.

"Why didn't you tell us that Zane Truesdale was your cousin?" One asked.

"So this wouldn't happen, leave him alone" Matt protested.

The boys all sent the celebrity one last glance and walked away at the DJ announcing a game of Coke and Pepsi.

"Now you know why I wouldn't let you drink" Alexis said.

Zane grumbled and took another chug out of his drink.

-Later that night.

"I cannot believe you misspelled your own name" Alexis said, sitting in the coat room.

Zane sent her a look.

"On one of the favors, you misspelled your name, You wrote Zane Trusdal. No E." Alexis reminded.

"Who cares?" Zane asked.

"It was really nice that you signed the card packs in each of the favor bags" Alexis said.

"Don't remind me" Zane said.

"Well, it was either that or a press conference" Alexis said.

"Very funny" Zane said.

"I'm tired, you ready to go yet?" Alexis asked.

"I was an hour ago" Zane said.

"yeah, but the party just ended" Alexis said.

Zane stood up Then he helped Alexis up. They walked out of the closet where they had been hiding and into the restaurant.

"Zane!" Matt ran up to the couple.

"Thanks! My friends all really loved the favors!" Matt smiled and hugged his cousin.

"Your welcome, happy birthday Matt" Zane said, walking to the door.

Where he was cut off.

"Thank you" Matt's mother whispered.

Zane nodded, and left, Alexis on his heels.

He stood on the sidewalk, trying to hail a cab.

His Father walked up to him.

"That was very mature of you, I expected you to throw a hissy fit at your aunts request. Your growing up Zane" He said. He smiled at his eldest son and walked to his car.

"What was that about?" Alexis asked.

"My father… he actually said something nice" Zane said, dumbfounded.

Alexis stared at him with shock. Then she whistled with two fingers.

A cab stopped directly in front of her.

Zane stared at her, as to say, HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?

"I picked it up one summer when I went to a duel camp in the city" Alexis said, opening the door.

On the ride home, Alexis fell asleep on Zane's shoulder.

"Your girlfriend?" The Cabbie asked.

"Yeah" Zane said.

The cab stopped, and let the two of them out.

"Thank you" Zane said, Alexis was still half asleep.

He closed his eyes, and then remembered what tomorrow would bring, His duel with Johan.

_You are going down Johan! _

-End chapter 5

Have a great summer, I won't be updating until august (but I have mail on my phone, so I'll get reviews)

Watch the Video! (Fei's tradition in a nutshell, on youtube)

10join

Fei!


	6. Embarrasment, thy name is Jaden

Hey readers! Back a few days early (I got severe second degree burns on my toes because one of my roommates left her flat iron on the floor while we were out of the hotel room, forgot about it, and I stepped on it while getting back to the room, and I couldn't take proper care of it while camping)

But I have cool pirate Band-Aids that I put over the gauze and stuff, so at least it's a bad-ass burn!



Zane was exhausted when he walked into his publicist's office the next morning, a little hung over as well.

But who freaking cared? Tonight was the night he would beat the crap out of johan!

"Good morning Mr. Truesdale, how are you today?" A secretary asked.

Zane nodded, as to say, I AM FREAKING GREAT! I get to beat the pants off of that annoying little Johan. Alexis wasn't morning sick at all today, and she was up early enough to cook!

But of course, the secretary didn't speak Zane so just smiled at any response to her question.

"Good morning Zane, I have this week's pile of magazines here, you interested in any of them?" his publicist asked.

"any of them mention anything other then my love life?" Zane asked.

"Um…. Lets see, no, no, no, no, yes! Duel weekly's survey, it reads: Battle of the Bluenettes: we have a feeling of who would win in a duel (No offence Johan) but who wins in the over-all category, who's the better man, lets look at these statistics…." His publicist scanned the article, and then handed it to Zane.

"it mentions your love life briefly. But other then that it's about a whole variety of things"

**Battle of the Bluenettes **

**Zane Truesdale **

**Duel Record: currently 5 wins, 0 losses **

**Love Life: Lives with and is in love with long term girlfriend, high school sweetheart, and seven months pregnant Alexis Rhodes **

**Charity: He donated large sums of money to programs that sends inner city kids to duel camp for a month, and he currently is donating money to a program that helps teen mothers with no support. **

_**(Zane's thoughts: good thing she suggested I give x amount of money for her to donate every month)**_

**Fans: Fans of Mr. Truesdale all say that he is a cool and calm person, and a force to be reckoned with. Girls want to date him and boys want to be like him. **

**Pre-Pro league: Zane graduated as valedictorian from Duel Academy, where he scored perfect on all of his exams. **

**Interesting Facts: Zane has naturally blue hair, and likes jogging and tennis.**

**What Fans Say: "Zane is awesome, definitely the next king of games!" **

**Rival: The teenage sensation, and former youngest member of the pro league Edo Phoenix **

**What Rival's fans say: "Zane is a good duelist, but he still can't defeat Edo, Edo Rules!" **

**Signature monster: The cyber end dragon. **

**Johan Anderson**

**Duel Record: 3 and 1 **

**Love Life: Johan is openly homosexual, and is currently dating fellow pro league duelist Jaden Yuki. **

**Charity: Johan funds an "allow homosexual marriage" fund, and also donates to several charities in his home country of Germany. (**_**An: I know he's European, I'm just guessing) **_

**Fans: Johan, for a rookie, is very popular; he loves the spotlight, and always signs autographs. **

**Pre-Pro league: Johan was the top student at north academy, and then transferred to the main Duel Academy for his senior year. He graduated third in his class. **

**Interesting Facts: Johan was voted best dressed in the pro league, is from Germany, is able to communicate with his monsters (as with several other legends) and is currently second in the running for rookie of the year. **

**What Fans Say: "Johan Anderson is pretty cool, he always has fun, and looses gracefully, which isn't what I can say for all duelists, I can't wait to see him in a few years, when he's a well experienced power house" **

**Rival: Boyfriend Jaden Yuki. **

**What Rival's fans say: "Johan and Jaden, we all know who is going to win that duel! Jaden has beaten him time and time again, but at least Johan knows how to take a hit" **

**Signature Monster: The Rainbow Dragon**

**All around, we'll let you be the judge, and check out their duel this week! **

Zane handed the magazine back to his publicist.

"What do you think?"

"I don't really care, now if you would excuse me, I need to make sure I prepped my deck for tonight" Zane said,

"Okay Zane, make sure your at the stadium at ten, and bring Alexis, we don't want to give the gossip buzz a reason to buzz on your relationship now do we? That's what I thought!"

Zane rolled his eyes, stopping in once a week was to much of a pain. And soon the playoffs were going to start, meaning there were going to be PARTIES he had to attend.

_Ugh, sometimes I wonder if being able to duel for a living is worth all of this_

"Hey, Kaiser! What are you doing away from home? Sho told me that you never leave the house on duel days" Jaden ran over to Zane. Completely ignoring the fact that he was j-walking and had just almost caused an accident.

"Jaden, would you mind keeping it down?" Zane asked.

"Oh, I see you're in hiding right? Well, just to have you know, I have a better record then you! I'm way, way closer to being king of games then you!" Jaden bragged.

"Jaden, believe what you want to believe, you still cant beat me in a duel" Zane said, there was nothing better then putting someone like Jaden, lots of bark, a small bite, In there place.

"Riiiight, well, I'm on my way to see Alexis, so I guess I'll walk with you! Johan tried to explain to me how babies are made, but I didn't understand, so Alexis said she's going to explain it to me… or something… I don't know…" Jaden grinned.

"Your parents never told you? You never took health class?" Zane asked.

"Well, my parents weren't around very often when I was little, and they wouldn't allow me to take health without permission from my parents" Jaden explained. 

Zane nodded.

"You know, the baby should have Alexis's personality, your dueling skills, and your hair color, and Alexis's eye color, but it should inherit your height" Jaden grinned.

"I'll take that into consideration" Zane deadpanned.

"Do you read the articles about you? Johan always buys magazines and we look for articles about us or people we know, some of the stuff they say is pretty funny, by the way, what does openly homosexual, or the cutest fag couple mean?" Jaden asked.

"Ask Johan to explain it" Zane said, _Jaden, you are pretty damn stupid, scratch that, you're a complete and total idiot. _

"I did, but he got mad when I asked him what the cutest fag couple means. Could you tell me?" Jaden asked.

"Openly homosexual means you don't hide the fact that you like guys. And cutest fag couple means, well, it's a mean thing to say. Get it?" Zane said. _I cannot believe that I even need to explain this to him, he's been openly gay for months. _

"Well, everyone likes guys! So then everyone's openly homosexual, right?" Jaden grinned.

_Okay, front door is in sight, I only have to put up with him for a minuet more, then he's Alexis's problem_

"No… Homosexual means when you're a boy, that you like boys, the way you like Johan. You are openly homosexual" Zane had to hold in his laughter from how awkward the situation was.

"Oh, I get it… I think…. What does it mean when people ask me if I spit or swallow?"

_My front door has a new sign, it says hit head here, I think I may comply with this hallucination. _

"Jaden! Do not say things like that!" Alexis said, standing on the porch.

"Why? What does it mean?" JAden asked, innocently.

"Just, Jaden go in the living room, I'll be there in a minuet." Alexis said, stepping aside for Jaden to get through.

"Cool! See you in a minuet Alexis!" Jaden ran inside.

"I do not even want to know what that conversation was about Zane Truesdale" Alexis put her hands on her hips and gave him her best mom look.

"He doesn't know what homosexual means, I had to explain it to him" Zane said.

Alexis burst out laughing.

"That's Jaden for you, the bluntest and most inexperienced kid I have ever met!" She laughed.

"I hear you agreed to give him the talk" Zane said.

"It will be good practice"

"Can I watch" Zane asked.

"Why?" Alexis asked.

"Because this is going to be amusing…" Zane said.

-A while later

"Bye Alexis, bye Zane! see you two tonight!" Jaden said, running out of the house.

"Zane" Alexis said, flopping onto the couch.

"Hn"

"When the baby is born, you are the one explaining this" She said.

"I'll leave it to health class" Zane said.

-end chapter 6

Sorry for the long wait and short chapter, there will be another long update asap.


	7. By george, I think You've got it!

Seriously pissed off because my mom "organized my closet" and ended up throwing out about half of my cosplay stuff (over 150$ of babysitting money, now in the compost pile) _"Oh, I didn't think you wanted all that silly stuff, but now you can go and buy makeup, and watch the OC and American Idol, and forget all that silly babyish anime stuff" _someone please, please, tell me that I'm not the only person with parents like that! Seriously, they pronounce Anime: Annie May. Like its two words. And they think it's for babies, Okay, mom dad, get a clue, watch five minutes of Death Note and THEN tell me its for babies!

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anywhoo: Baby Names, anyone have any ideas? It's a boy but I'm seriously having a brain fart with what the name should be!

Ahfkjdhtiuewhdnkjfjioehfueidsjfhgiorhfuiehdkvfewiohfsdkjrfewiohfahdgefh

Zane bit his tongue. There was no way he was going to grin or look exultant. No way, he was not going to let the press know how sweet this little bit of revenge was. He had just defeated Johan. In just three turns no less. The little rookie didn't even have time to START trying to get his rainbow dragon (snicker) out on the field. Zane hadn't even taken one hit. Oh, this was up there with defeating Edo Phoenix, not that that had happened yet, but the way things were going for Zane this season, there was no stopping him.

"Great job Truesdale" Gorilla said, patting him on the back.

"Although, you need to make the duels last longer, anyone who gets up to go to the snack bar misses the whole thing!" His publicist advised.

"I'm going home" was all Zane could say.

_To celebrate my victory over that rumor spreading, friend screwing, annoying little European piece of crack! _

"You need to be in the public eye more, if you had more personality, you'd be way more popular"

_I have personality, I just choose not to use it, and anyway, if I wanted to be more popular, I would be, simple as that. _That's what he wanted to say. But of course, he was far too polite.

"Zane, you ready?" Alexis asked, running towards him.

"No need to run, you could fall, and yes" _I'm always ready to get away from those psychos! _

"Be careful, at eight months, anything could happen" His publicist grinned.

"Shoot me now, please" Zane mumbled.

"Sorry, the baby needs a father" Alexis snickered at her own joke, while attempting to hail a cab.

"You have a doctor's appointment tomorrow" Zane reminded.

"Are you coming with me?" Alexis asked.

"Yes"

Finally, a cab stopped and they climbed inside.

"Did you read the article the doctor told you to read?" Zane asked, once they were driving with the door firmly closed.

Alexis thought for a second.

"I think so"

"What was it about?" Zane asked rolling his eyes.

"Um, wait, it was about, pregnancy!" Alexis grinned at her answer.

"It was about how teen mothers usually give birth anywhere from three months to two weeks early, almost never on time" Zane reminded.

"Oh, well… I'm almost 20…" Alexis smiled.

"Lexi, this is serious, we need to start being prepared now" Zane said.

"Zane, I understand your concern, but if I was going to give birth early, wouldn't there be signs of it?" Alexis asked.

"You've stopped having mood swings, morning sickness, and you need to pee every five seconds. Those are major signs" Zane said.

"Can we not talk about this in the car?" Alexis asked.

"Is this it?" The cabbie asked.

"Yeah" Zane said, tossing him the cash.

They always walked the last block so nobody could tell where they lived, not that a pregnant woman and a man with blue hair was something that is easily overlooked.

"Zane, both of our mothers have been planning a baby shower for a week from now ever since we found out my due date. I'm sure that we'll get everything we need. The nursery has been done for weeks." Alexis said.

"There are other things we need to worry about, like names, schools, nannies, a lot of things besides clothes, furniture, and diapers." Zane pulled the house key out of his pocket.

"Zane, I hate to break this to you, but your turning into a worried grandmother, everything will be fine! I've handled being kidnapped, being brainwashed and in a cult, and being sent to an alternate dimension, I can handle a baby!" Alexis said, leaning on the porch railing.

Zane opened the door and took off his shoes, while Alexis ran to the bathroom.

_She is REALLY starting to get on my nerves about this non caring attitude. _

"I can take care of myself Zane, I've been able to in the past" Alexis said, walking from the bathroom to the nursery.

"This is different, in all those situations; you've never been the one to keep yourself safe. I don't think you realize this Alexis BUT YOU CANT TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. YOU NEVER COULD!" Zane yelled.

_That didn't come out right_

Alexis stepped into the hall. A look of pure shock on her face. Shock mixed with hurt.

"Alexis, that- I didn't mean-I wasn't trying to" Zane began.

"Is that what you think of me? That I'm just some little girl who needs you or Jaden or my brother to help me when the going gets tough? Zane, I can't believe you. You clearly weren't someone who believed in me, like I thought you were." Alexis said, walking slowly to the bedroom.

"Lexi, I didn't mean it like that," Zane started.

"Then what were you trying to say? It sounded to me like you think that I can't take care of myself." Alexis said, pulling herself onto the bed.

"I, Alexis, what I meant was that you need to take this situation more seriously. I don't think that it's hit you that, pretty soon, quite possibly sooner then we think. We're going to be responsible for the well being of another human life." Zane inhaled and exhaled while waiting for her answer.

"Zane, I've went up from a 2 to a 10. I'm tired, and hormonal, and pissed off, and fat. I'm well aware what is happening right now. Okay, so I haven't put that much thought into when the baby is born, but everything is happening so fast. If you had asked me where I would be now a year ago, I guarantee I wouldn't say _pregnant with Zane's son, unemployed, and under pressure to get married_. I'm pretty sure it would be something more along the lines of _the pro league_. Three words, end of story. Life was so **simple** last year. I can't believe how fast everything is happening. And then YOU decide to go drop the bomb that I could very well have this baby any day now!"

"Alexis, you need to face reality, were going to be parents soon. And we have no idea what to do about it." Zane said, sitting next to her.

"Your right you know, I do rely on other people. Maybe too much. But our son, is going to rely on me soon enough. And I guess it's hard to accept that." Alexis said, sitting up.

"I think I finally understand why my father thinks that were not ready to have a baby" Zane said.

"What?"

"I understand it now, its not that were not ready, it's that we are ready, we just need to admit we need help" Zane said.

"I don't get what you're saying" 

"We need help, we have no clue how to raise a baby, and we need to admit it, I need to talk to my dad." Zane said.

"You're getting really exited about this" Alexis said, raising her eyebrows.

"Lex, go to sleep. I'll be back in a second." Zane said, leaving the room.

He went into the kitchen, and dialed his parents number.

"Hello?" His mom asked

"Hi, mom, can I talk to dad?" Zane asked.

"Sure honey, everything alright?"

"Everything's fine, can you put dad on?" 

The line was quiet for a moment, while Zane sat impatiently on the hold.

"Zane" 

"Dad, I have a question for you"

"What"

"When did it first hit you that you were going to be a father?"

The line was quiet for a minuet.

"I guess when your mother went into labor. I don't think you know this, but you were almost three months early… we were so scared, nothing was ready. I remember pacing around the waiting room; your grandmother had to coach her through the whole thing, as I was clueless. And after almost six hours, I realized what was happening, and that I just wasn't ready to be a dad yet." Mr. Truesdale didn't sound right, almost like he was crying.

"So, what did you do?" Zane asked.

"I did the only thing I could think of; I asked my dad the same thing you're asking me now."

"What did your dad say?" Zane asked.

"The same thing I'm saying now. I think you're finally mature enough to be a father, you finally realized that you don't have any clue what you're doing. And you need help. Zane, Men can do anything they put there minds to. But it takes a real man to admit that he might need a little help. I'm proud of you" Mr. Truesdale was definitely crying.

Although he wouldn't admit it, Zane was crying too.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you, I love you Zane"

"I love you too Dad"

"It's late, and quite likely Alexis is worrying were you are right now. Go to sleep!" Mr. Truesdale laughed.

"Goodnight dad" and with that, Zane hung up.

End chappie 7

AWWWW HOW CUTE!

I think I just created a fluff cavity!

SOOOO Much fluff, soooo much fluff!

(sorry, no humor or Zane torture in that chapter, More to come, I promise! )

Another short one, sorry bout that. I'm leaving for my vacation house until Wednesday night, maybe even later. I get to baby-sit my bratty cousins for no pay without any breaks! I even get to sleep in the same overcrowded room as them! SUPER FUN! (note the sarcasm)

Remember, any baby names would be appreciated!

10join

Fei!


	8. Zane needs to name the baby

Yo!

Okay, so one of you (not mentioning any names) suggested a great idea of a future event.

I already had an idea, which I got from my former boyfriend, who got it from scrubs.

Unfortunately, it was the same idea.

So, this is similar, but not the same as the first draft of the chapter.

Sorry if there is no surprise for one of you (no names here)

Anywhoo: Dedicated to my two new kitties, Mozart and Symba. Who I love, although you make me sneeze. (I now have 5 pets, along with my evil dog Kylie, my parrot Captain and my turtle that doesn't really have a name)

I don't own GX.

* * *

"Alexis, are you sure it's okay?" Zane asked, pulling at the zippers on his suitcase.

"Its fine Zane, you'll be gone for less than two days" Alexis said, swatting at his hands and getting the damn thing zipped.

"But what if something happens? You're not allowed to fly because it's so close to your due date, what if you go into labor while I'm gone?" Zane asked.

"You are turning into my grandma Zane, your flying to the other side of Japan, dueling, and then flying home, nothing is going to happen" Alexis assured him.

"You say that quite often as of late" Zane cocked an eyebrow.

"And you worry too much." Alexis said.

"I could just forfeit and stay home" Zane said.

Alexis stood up on her toes and kissed him on the forehead.

Zane smirked.

"No fevers… are you sick or something?" Alexis put her hands on her hips.

Zane's face twisted into a confused mess.

"No, I am not sick, I **am** worried Alexis"

"Zane, you offered to forfeit a duel, the last time someone even **suggested **you forfeit a duel, they needed four men to hold you back" Alexis said.

"This is different and you know it" Zane said, unzipping the suitcase for the tenth time that day.

Alexis raised her eyebrow

"And it was three men, not four"

Alexis laughed.

"Did you decide yet?" Alexis said.

"On what?" Zane asked.

"Names, Zane, I have my three, you need yours" Alexis said, zipping the suitcase again.

"I like your three, why do I need to make this harder?" Zane asked.

"_Because, _the names I pick might not fit the baby, what if we name the baby something that does not suit them at all!? We could scar them, they could get a nickname that suits them better, then the name we chose, and then it would stick, and we would sit on our butts while our child's friends prove to be better namer-s then we are!" Alexis ranted.

"I did not follow one word of that" Zane said.

"Just pick three names, I like Seth, Josh and Seto" Alexis said.

"I refuse to name our son seahorse"

"THEN PICK A FREAKING NAME!"

"I will, okay…"

_Ugh, names, I wouldn't use any of the names she picked, I need to think of something fast, and so she won't make me think of any more names. _

"Um, Septemburus, Red Green, and um, sue" Zane said.

"You're kidding me right?" Alexis said.

Zane kept his face blank.

"Those sound like names from a fanfiction review written by a bi-polar lady mixed with a crazy dragon who wants our baby to die" Alexis said.

"I guess this just isn't my forte" Zane said, picking up the suitcase.

"Nu uh, you were just trying to get out of thinking up names. If you don't really think about it your not going to be able to concentrate on your duel, so think Zane" Alexis said, walking him to the front door.

"Are you sure your okay with me leaving?" Zane asked.

"Yes Zane, I'm fine, now could you please just think of three measly names?" Alexis asked.

"I'll try"

"Good, I'll be fine, you worry about your duel and three names" Alexis laughed, giving him a kiss.

"I'll be back as soon as I can"

"I'm not worried"

-Later

"There you have it folks, Zane "Three Turn" Truesdale strikes again!"

Zane stepped out of the arena when his phone rang.

**Atticus** the screen blazed.

Zane hit send and held the tiny phone up to his ear.

"Zane?" A voice asked uncertainty

Zane panicked.

"Y-yes?" he stammered.

"You're a…" Atticus paused.

Zane's heart skipped a beat.

"A…"

Dramatic pause

"COMPLEETE BASTARD! You left my sister alone, Jesus Christ! What am I going to do with you?" Atticus said.

Zane breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, and you might want to get over to the hospital as soon as you get home, Alexis is starting to have contractions"

All Atticus heard was a thud.

"Zane? Zane? HELLO!? I WAS KIDDING!"

Then the line went blank.

"Kidding, Atticus you fucking gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry dude couldn't help it."

"I'm coming home at midnight, you are a dead man next time I see you"

* * *

MWAHAHAHAHA!

I had you all tricked didn't I?

Nope, no babies being born yet… I still have a few weeks till school and intend to torture Zane (and you all) every minuet of it.

Anywhoo: Alexis's name rant was based off of my own name situation. My real name does not fit me at all (it's all happy and perky and babyish and I hate it) but my parents wont call me Fei (like everyone else does) because they refuse to admit that the name they picked for me just doesn't work.

10join

Fei!


	9. Taxi Phobia

Yo, I have to say that this chapter did NOT come out the way I wanted it to. anywhoo, thanks for all the great name ideas.

* * *

Alexis woke up to some shouting.

"I cannot believe that you would do something so rotten"

"Then you clearly don't know me as well as you think"

"Are you punishing me for something?"

"Karma"

"And what do I deserve Karma for?"

"I'll list what you don't deserve it for; it's a much shorter list"

"This isn't your choice to make"

"It is, you are not welcome here, now get out"

"I have as much right to be here as you do"

"Your logic is not what I would call sane"

"I wouldn't call you sane"

"Get out before I make you"

"You and what army":

"I wouldn't need one"

"Shut up"

"I'm leaving"

"Good"

Alexis rolled over in her sleep and reached for the remote. Pulling it out from under the covers, she turned the TV off.

_Must have hit the button_ she thought. Putting the remote on the nightstand, she rolled over and tried to sleep.

The clock read six AM when the bedroom door creaked open.

Zane was standing in the door way, looking exhausted.

"Hey, you alright?" He whispered, at a volume that wouldn't wake her if she was asleep. But could be heard if she was awake.

"Yeah… you're back early" Alexis noted.

Zane walked over and sat on the bed, relief filled his face

"Your brother gave me a heart attack,"

"He didn't… did he?" Alexis asked.

"He did" Zane said, lying down on his stomach.

"I told him that you would be pissed, what did you do?" Alexis asked, turning on the lamp.

"Let's just say I need a new cell phone"

_And a good lawyer, I sure as hell hope that guy doesn't sue. _

Alexis laughed.

"You missed the baby shower, lucky you" She grinned.

"How bad was it?" Zane asked, he had noticed a few hundred baby objects littering the hallway and the kitchen, and every other open space in the house.

"Bad, real, real bad. If I ever am forced to listen to a bunch of women OHHH and AHHH over a bunch of fuzzy pajamas, I may kill myself with a pacifier and the directions on how to build a changing table" She put her hands around her throat to show how serious she was.

Zane blinked, and then smirked, okay, so maybe he wasn't exactly upset he had missed that.

"Three turns Truesdale strikes again" Alexis smirked.

"It's the part of the season where they put the rookies up against the pros, I won't be so lucky in a few more weeks" Zane said. _Just what I need, more difficult opponents, as if my life isn't stressful enough_.

"Don't sweat it, you'll be fine" Alexis said. She winced and then turned out the light.

"What was that?" Zane asked.

"What was what?" Alexis asked.

"You winced" He pointed out.

"I have heartburn, it's from all the cookies I had at the party, and it's nothing" Alexis said.

"Have you been having heartburn all day?" Zane asked.

"No, I get a spell of it, and then it stops, nothing major" Alexis said.

_Heartburn, I read something about heartburn somewhere… it means… um, it means that… damn it, I'll look it up in the morning. _

"Good night" Alexis said, lying back down.

"Night"

Later that day.

The digital clock read half past 10 when the phone rang.

Zane buried his head under his pillow, and then reached around for the cordless phone.

"Hello?" He asked groggily.

"Zane! Hi! Were you sleeping? That's weird, it's almost 11, and you don't usually sleep late. Anyway, I am pissed at you; you need to honor your engagements! You promised that you would stay for the after party, not take the first flight back to domino!" His publicist said in a pitch and speed that Zane could not understand coming from a human being.

"I have other things on my mind right now" Zane said.

"Well, I know, but really, you need to make more appearances! You were only in FIVE magazines this week, that's an all time low for you! Anyway, I need you to stop by the office for a few minutes, nothing major, but as soon as possible please!"

"Hn"

"I'll take that as a yes, see you in a bit!" the line went blank

_That girl, I think I may just want to kill her one day. _

"Alexis?" Zane asked.

The low groan that came from under the blankets answered his question.

"I need to leave for about an hour. Are you alright with that?" He asked.

A long pause

"Yeah…"

"Are you okay by yourself?" He asked.

"Yes grandma." She mumbled.

"If you need something, call my publicists office, my phone is broken. If you can't reach me call Hannah" He said.

"Hannah?" She asked.

"She's the only person within a fifteen mile radius that I know." He answered.

A small groan.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Heartburn, I'll be fine"

"I'll be back" Zane said. Walking out the door, he grabbed Alexis's cell phone, just incase.

"I have your cell" He yelled.

"It's dead" she yelled back.

_Shit_

He walked into town and hailed a cab.

_Heartburn, what did I read about heartburn in pregnant women? _

"This is fine" Zane said, handing the man the cash.

Walking the final block, he pondered the problem from as many angles as possible.

_I know it was important, now what the hell was it!?_

"Hello Mr. Truesdale" A secretary greeted him.

"No, that's not it" he mumbled.

He barged right into his publicist's office.

"Three Turn Truesdale strikes again, your reputation is very impressive as of late" His publicist grinned.

"What did you need to see me about?" he asked.

She handed him a new cell phone.

"You had all the data backed up, but the phone was broken beyond repair. We gave the man you hit hush up money, so your tantrum will remain under wraps"

He nodded.

"You're distracted"

"I forgot something, and I think it's important" He said.

"You left this here last week, I forgot to give it back to you, and your reading material is very strange Mr. Truesdale" She said, handing him the pregnancy articles.

"You're not funny"

Zane scanned the articles while he was waiting for the doorman to hail him a taxi.

**Things you can mistake Contractions for: **

Zane looked up from the article for a minuet and sat down in the cab.

He then proceeded to read the article.

Number one on the list sent him into cardiac arrest.

**Heartburn**

"OH FUCK!" He yelled, earning a stare from the elderly gentleman driving the cab.

"Sorry," He mumbled.

He diged in his pocket for the new phone.

"Turn on, turn on dammit" He said.

The second the main screen came on, he dialed his house number.

"Alexis!?" He asked hurriedly, when the phone was answered.

"No, she's in an ambulance; she was almost collapsing from pain when she called me, what's going on?" A voice asked.

"Who is this?" He almost shouted.

"Hannah, I called 911 when I could, I've been trying to reach you, what's going on?"

"Alexis is going to the hospital now right?" He asked.

"Yeah, I think so, that is where an ambulance goes right?" Hannah said.

Zane hung up the phone.

"Sorry, can you go to the hospital?" Zane asked.

"Yes…" The cabbie said, turning around.

"How long is it going to take?" He asked.

"A while, look at that traffic."

"Please, is there any way you could go faster?" Zane asked.

"Sorry kid, no can do"

"Please, my girlfriend is having a baby"

"Yeah, that's what they all say, look kid, there is no way your getting to the hospital in the next hour unless you can either make the car fly, or you walk. walking would probably be longer"

Zane felt like he needed to kill this man.

He dialed another number.

"Mom?"

"Zane, what's wrong?"

"I'm stuck in traffic, and Alexis is at the hospital"

There was a pause.

"Oh my goodness, I'll be there in a minuet, Call her mom as well"

The Line went blank.

He looked through his contacts as fast as possible. Unfortunately, he did not have any of the contacts programmed.

"Shit"

"If you could please refrain from using that language"

He dialed the only number he could think of.

"Hello?" A voice asked

"Atticus!"

"Zane, what, another death threat?"

"Your sister is in the hospital and I'm stuck in traffic"

"Real funny man. Now really, what?"

"ATTICUS, you're much closer then I am, I need you to go to the hospital right now!"

"SHIT! I'm not there, I'm actually on the other side of the country, there was this job offer and… well, never mind, I'll call my mom, she'll fly there if she needs to"

Zane hung up the phone.

Twenty tense minutes passed, and they had only traveled a few blocks.

"How much further is it?"

"About another hour in the cab, and a half hour run, if the traffic doesn't let up"

Zane tossed the man a twenty and practically jumped out of the cab.

_All you have to do is A, hope Alexis isn't stuck in this traffic, and B hope that the traffic lets up a few blocks up and I can hail a cab from there. _

Zane sprinted down the street as fast as he could. The traffic was not moving one block up, or two, or three. He gave up on the idea of taking a cab halfway.

_I only hope this traffic jam isn't on the other side of the city_.

"Hey, You!" A little boy ran in front of him.

Zane practically dislocated his kneecaps trying to stop.

"Are you Zane Truesdale?" The kid asked.

"No" Zane answered.

"Nu-Uh! You totally are! Here, can you sign this?" He asked, holding out his baseball cap.

"Kid, I'm a little busy right now'

"Jerk! Wait until the tabloids hear about this!" The kid said, running down the street.

Zane shot the people looking on dirty looks.

_What was I doing? OH SHIT!_

He began to run double the speed, until; finally, the traffic jam's culprit was sighted. An accident. But right in front of the crashed cars. Traffic was beginning to move.

"TAXI!" He yelled.

Almost instantly a cab pulled up and he climbed inside.

"Wow! Zane Truesdale in my cab!" A thirty-something woman grinned.

"The Domino hospital, as fast as you can"

"Okie dokie! The ride is free for an autograph." The woman said.

Zane scribbled down his name on a gum wrapper and threw it at the woman.

Just as the hospital came into view, traffic picked up again.

"Thank You" Zane opened the door and ran to the sidewalk.

He sprinted up the stairs of the hospital into the waiting room.

"Hello? What can I do for you?"

"My name is Zane Truesdale, and my girlfriend went into labor about two hours ago"

"And just who is your girlfriend?"

"Alexis Rhodes"

"And she's in labor?"

"Yes"

"Then you can bring her in" the receptionist smiled.

"NO! She's in labor here!

"Do you know who her doctor is?"

"No, I just got here"

"I can see that…"

"Zane!" A voice yelled.

Zane whipped his head around to see DR. Rhodes standing behind him.

"Where the hell were you?"

"I was stuck in traffic, where's Alexis?" Zane asked.

"She's fine… she's in the room right now" He explained

"I'm taking him" Dr. Rhodes said to the receptionist.

She rolled her eyes, and they ran down the hallway.

Two big metal doors stood at the outside, a security guard standing there.

"Name?"

"This is my daughters boyfriend, he is authorized to be in the room because he is the baby's father, now please let us through" Dr. Rhodes explained.

"Okay Marty, I expect the paperwork filled out asap"

Dr. Rhodes pushed open the doors and lead Zane to a room at the end of the hall.

He opened the door, and a rush of the sounds of medical equipment and screams filled the hall.

"Sorry, no earplugs"

Zane was ushered inside.

He ran over and replaced his mother as the hand holder.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

Alexis didn't look at him.

"Where, AGH! The, FUCK! Were you!!?" Alexis gasped between screams.

"In traffic, I ran here"

Alexis grasped onto his hand, it had to be the most painful thing he had ever felt in his entire life.

_Jesus Christ she has a grip. _

"Zane, just some advice as someone who's been in this position before, but don't look to the left" Dr. Rhodes whispered to him.

Zane began to turn his head, but Dr. Rhodes caught it.

"Trust me; it's not something you will ever want to see in your life"

"DAD! FUCK! AGH! HOW MUCH, FUCK! LONGER!? AGH!" Alexis screamed.

"Not that much more, if things go the way they are going, only about five more minutes, you only have three inches more"

"FUCK!" Alexis screamed.

A sickening crunch and a pain filled his arm.

"Zane, switch hands" A nurse said.

Zane looked at his hand, which was purple and bent.

_She broke my fucking hand!_

"Its not broken, just bent." A nurse reassured him.

Zane's hearing was cut out by screams, his mother and Alexis's father were telling Alexis to do something, he couldn't hear well.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" She screamed.

Screams filled the room.

Zane used his free hand to push the hair out of her eyes.

"ZANE, DON'T YOU DARE MOTHER FUCKING TOUCH ME EVER AGAIN! FUCK!"

A doctor yelled something and Mrs. Truesdale smiled.

Dr. Rhodes mouthed something to Alexis, who screamed one more time.

Then everything became silent. At least in Zane's mind it did.

Zane turned his head in the forbidden direction.

And passed out instantly.

"Zane, Zane, ZANE!" Dr. Rhodes was standing over him, making a concerned face.

"What happened?" He asked.

"You fainted… I never took you for the squeamish type"

"Its been a stressful day, how's Alexis?" he asked.

"Fine, she's sleeping"

"Did everything go okay?" Zane asked.

"Well, yes and no" Dr. Rhodes made a concerned face.

"What do you mean, YES AND NO" Zane asked, sitting up in the hospital bed he was in.

"The baby is alive and fine, but he's a tiny bit, small…"

"What do you mean small?" Zane asked.

"He's going to need to stay in the hospital for at least a week, he's almost a month early, but, he's healthy, we just want to make sure" He reassured.

"Oh, good, can I see him?" Zane asked.

"Yes, He doesn't have a name yet," Dr. Rhodes said.

Zane was lead to a nursery, there were about a dozen or so baby's sleeping.

The one in the middle caught his eye, he was a tiny baby, but a head of blue hair was already growing.

"That one" Zane said.

"Good instinct, they'll both be fine. He already has a huge set of lungs, but he's been pretty quiet. And Alexis is tough, she's probably going to be a bit, well, hormonal, for the next few days, but it's natural."

"Is she, mad, at me?" Zane asked.

"No, your mother explained everything to her. She was a bit, pissed at first, but… you look exhausted, she knows you tried your hardest to be there"

Zane's dad, Alexis's mom, and Syrus, all came into the room.

"What's his name?" Syrus asked.

"We, don't, really, know" Zane answered.

"Oh, he has your hair!" Mrs. Rhodes squealed.

"Alexis is awake, she wants to see you." Mrs. Truesdale whispered to Zane.

This time, he was lead to another room.

"Hey," Zane said, walking into the room.

"Hey" Alexis answered.

"How are you?" Zane asked.

"Fine, but, lets just say it's not an experience I would like to relive" Alexis said.

"Did you see him?" Zane asked.

"Yeah, adorable, he looks like you…" Alexis said.

"What do you think we should name him?" She asked.

"Xander" Zane said.

"With an X or a Z?" Alexis asked.

"An X"

"I like it, it has a badass tone to it" Alexis smiled.

"That's why I picked it" Zane grinned.

"Where did you find such a peculiar name?" Alexis asked.

"I was looking up baby names, and was wondering if there were names that started with an X. it was the first on the list" Zane said.

"Xander Truesdale… I like it." Atticus walked into the room.

"I thought you were out of town" Zane said.

"Actually, I was on the plane back to Domino, I had to hang up on you because we were taking off. I heard you fainted" Atticus smirked.

"ATTY! DO NOT INSULT HIM RIGHT NOW!" Alexis screeched.

"Yeah, yeah, sure…" Atticus said with a wink.

"Xander has to stay here for another week" Zane said.

"I know, my dad explained it all. Can you believe it?" She whispered.

"What?" Zane asked.

"We're parents, I'm a mom! So not how I was expecting to spend my first year out of school" Alexis grinned.

_How is she not exhausted right now? _

"Are you tired?" She asked.

"No… I'm fine" Zane lied.

"You can go home if you want; I'm allowed to go home in a few days. You can visit." Alexis said.

"You don't even believe yourself. I'm staying here until you leave" Zane said.

All of a sudden, there was a buzzing in his pocket.

"Hello?" Zane said, rolling his eyes.

"Zane! YOU HAVENT BEEN ANSWERING YOUR PHONE! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU!?" His publicist screeched.

Zane hung up the phone.

Atticus mock applauded.

" Can we come in?" The Rhodes, and Truesdale family's stood in the hall outside the room.

"Did you come up with a name?" A nurse asked.

"Xander Kirin" Zane said.

"Kirin?" Alexis asked.

"Do you have a better idea?" Zane asked.

"Xander Kirin, I do like it," Alexis said.

A doctor came into the room holding Xander.

"He's healthy, but we need to keep him here for a few days" He commented.

The Doctor handed the baby to Zane.

"Are you crying?" Zane asked Atticus.

"N-NO!" Atticus said, wiping his eyes.

"Nii-san is crying!" Alexis laughed.

"Xander Kirin, this is your family" Zane said, handing the drooling baby to his mom.

"Xander Kirin Truesdale, that isn't the name of a kid you mess with" Syrus smiled.

_Neither was syrus, before you came along. _

"You scared me half to death, now didn't you? You adorable little baby!" Alexis said, holding him.

Atticus took out his camera and snapped several shots of Xander with everyone.

"Now I hope you don't mind me selling these to the tabloids…" Atticus said, grinning.

"Actually, I do" Zane said, hitting him upside the head.

-

* * *

With Xander Kirin born, things were looking up, right? Well, there's more to come, just you wait. 


	10. A cocky prick with a stick up his ass

I hit 10 chapters! YAY!

* * *

"Zane, you need to come in here! Now!" Alexis screamed.

Zane dropped the food he was eating and rushed into the nursery. Alexis was sitting on the floor holding Xander.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he panicked.

"Listen to Xander" She grinned.

"Duel! Duel!" Xander squealed happily.

_Go figure, my son's first word is Duel_.

"It doesn't mean he understands it." Zane said bluntly.

"Zane you really know how to burst my bubble don't you?" Alexis said, with a look of mock anger.

"Okay, well, he didn't chew up **your **entire deck," Zane said.

"He chewed up **one **cyber dragon, which you replaced with just one call to shepherd" Alexis said.

"Duel!" Xander screamed excitedly.

Zane couldn't help but smile.

"Admit it, it is pretty cute" Alexis said, poking Zane in the side.

_No, it's really, really, cute, not that I'm going to admit it. _

"Okay, it's pretty cute," Zane said.

"Ma duel!?" Xander screamed.

Alexis glared at Xander.

"That's a secret baby" She whispered.

"Two words in one night, he's a genius" Zane grinned.

"Can you say dad?" Alexis asked the baby in her arms.

"Da duel!" He squealed.

"Three!" Alexis grinned.

"Xander can you say 'I'm sorry for chewing up your cards and I'm going to potty train my self right now?'" Zane asked.

Alexis snickered.

"Duel!" Xander screeched.

"Shouldn't he be asleep?" Zane asked.

"Your daddy's a party pooper" Alexis whispered to the baby, giving him a kiss.

Zane took Xander into his arms and gave him a kiss as well.

"Daaaaa" Xander cooed.

Zane sent Alexis a smirk, as to say

_He likes me better. _

Once Xander was safely in his crib with the lights dimmed, enough that they weren't annoyingly bright, but not so much that there wasn't any light. Zane and Alexis backed out of the room.

_Oh the irony, Xander loves the light. _

Alexis took one look in the kitchen.

"What the hell is all over the floor Zane?" She asked, pointing to the spilled noodles.

"My dinner, I thought something was wrong so I dropped it and ran" Zane said, rolling his eyes.

"Clean it up, I'm going to shower" Alexis said, ruffling his hair, which, unfortunately, hadn't been cut in months and was well down to his shoulders on all parts.

_At least there wasn't any sauce on them_.

Zane gathered up the noodles and threw them in the garbage. He washed his hands and took a look at the dry erase board that kept all things that needed to be done, both at work and in the house, in a neat list.

_Read next week's schedule and magazine summary._

Zane had finally convinced his agent he refused to read any stupid magazines, so now a very brief summary about what was written about him that week was given to him.

Walking into the bedroom, he changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt and climbed into bed.

The papers were sitting on his bed side table. He picked them up and began to read them. After a brief mishap due to skimming the papers _he had missed a very important meeting with some stupid company that sponsored him, not like he cared._ He had taken to reading everything word from word.

He always read the magazine summaries first, as they got him ready to see what stupid things he was expected to do in the coming week.

_Boring, don't care, something stupid, false farfetched rumor, and, cute, Xander was voted cutest celebrity baby of the week, nothing particularly interesting._

"Zane?" Alexis asked, standing in the doorway.

Zane looked up from the papers. In only four months, Alexis had most definitely lost all of the baby weight. Wearing a blue nightgown, and her hair piled on top of her head, minus a few strands in her face, she wore a face of excitement and fear.

"Guess what?" She asked.

Zane raised his eye brows.

Alexis walked over to the bed, climbed on, and sat on Zane's knees, her legs straddling his waist.

"You have to guess" Alexis said, leaning her face towards his, their foreheads touching.

"I have no clue" Zane said, feeling somewhat, nervous in their current position.

"Its not any fun if you don't guess." Alexis said, giving him a quick kiss on the lips.

_Damn it, that is unfair._

"You finally got the ultimate revenge on Atticus, and he promised never to be an ass again" Zane said with a completely straight face.

"It's not that good, but close" Alexis grinned, giving him another kiss.

"Edo, during a freak accident, hit his head so hard that he forgot how to duel" Zane deadpanned.

Alexis's eyes widened, and she laughed.

"That's horrible! And no, Edo was just fine the last time I saw him" She said.

_What, no kiss that time? _

"What were you doing talking to Edo?" Zane asked.

"Jealous boyfriend alert, am I not allowed to talk to my friends?" Alexis asked.

"Not ones that are selfish cocky pricks with sticks shoved up their asses" Zane said.

"You are jealous!" Alexis exclaimed.

"No, I just have a major dislike for that kid" Zane glared.

"Don't worry, I love only two men" Alexis said, leaning in to kiss him.

Zane moved his head.

"Two?" he glared.

"You and Xander" She grinned.

Zane rolled his eyes.

"Now you have to guess again, and be serious about it" she commanded.

"I'm clearly never going to guess it, why don't you tell me?" Zane said, kissing her.

"I never knew you were a quitter" Alexis said.

"I'm clearly not falling for that" Zane said.

"Quitter Quitter Qui-Mmmmh" Alexis was cut off from Zane's lips on hers.

Zane, for some reason, began to laugh when they broke apart.

"What?" Alexis asked, amused.

"Nothing" Zane said, putting on his straight face again.

"What!?" Alexis asked again.

Zane just raised his eyebrows.

"I'll tell you if you tell me, but you go first" Alexis offered

"It's funny how good of a kisser you are" Zane said.

Alexis thought for a second, and then got mad.

"And what exactly is so funny about that Zane Truesdale?" She asked, hands on her hips.

"Because, I am well aware that I am the only guy you have ever kissed, and it's funny that you can still surprise me" He explained.

Alexis wrinkled her eyebrows.

"And why are you so sure that I've never kissed another boy?" Alexis asked.

Zane paused, took a deep breath, and then answered.

"Because I gave you your first kiss, we were together during school, and after I graduated we were still together, that is why I am so sure that I am the only man you have ever kissed" Zane said, kissing her one more time to prove his point.

"And how are you so sure that I never kissed another guy after you graduated?" Alexis asked with a wicked grin.

"One, because you are very picky with who you kiss, two, because the only two boys besides me you ever really had a crush on are Jaden and Edo. Jaden's gay, and you know that if you ever kissed Edo, being the cocky prick with a stick in his ass that he is, he would brag about it." Zane explained.

"Why did I have to pick a guy who is so annoyingly smart?" Alexis asked.

Zane shrugged.

"And your news is?" He asked.

"I don't know if I should tell you now" Alexis teased, climbing off of him and grabbing the book on her bedside table.

Zane hated a lot of things, being tricked was one of them. He grabbed the book out of her hands and pinned her down with his hands on her shoulders, his legs outside of hers.

"What is it?" he asked, beginning to get pissed.

Alexis put her hands in his hair.

"Get a hair cut and I'll tell you" She laughed.

"Is their really any news?" Zane asked.

Alexis smiled

"Of course there is"

She yanked on his overgrown hair and put his forehead on to hers.

"Were you put up to this by my mother?" Zane asked.

"Nope, now seriously, if I tell you do you promise to get your hair cut?" She asked.

"I told you my secret, no deal, I'll force it out of you if I need to" He said.

He kissed her hard, not letting her have any say in what was going on inside her mouth. When Zane was mad, he didn't kiss, he claimed. The kind of kiss that got every corner and crevice of her mouth. The kind of kiss that spelled out "your mine and nobody else's"

"Tell me honestly that any other guy could ever do that to you"

Alexis opened her eyes.

"Tell me your news" he commanded.

"Do that again" Alexis said, staring at him with wide golden eyes. .

_As often as you like_ his mind screamed.

"Tell me?"

"Promise?"

"Tell me"

"Promise"

"Tell me"

"Promise"

"Tell me"

"Promise"

"Tell me"

"Promise"

Alexis couldn't take it any more.

"I got an offer to start in the pro leagues next season" She rushed out.

Of course, it sounded more like

Igotanoffertostartintheproleugesnextseason.

But Zane understood her.

He stared at her.

"No way, that's great!" He hugged her.

"I know, I thought I had lost my chance, you know, being a year older then the out of school rookies, but shepherd recommended me on his list, and they agreed to sign me!" Alexis squealed.

_I hope it isn't for the reason I think it's for_.

"That's amazing, did you tell anyone else yet?" He asked.

"No, just you and Xander" she grinned.

"You told Xander before me, I think I may just feel offended" Zane said with a small smile.

"He only knows three words. Its not like he would blab it to the world" Alexis said.

Zane nodded.

"Hey, what about your promise?" Alexis smiled.

Zane kissed her, came up for air, and kissed her again, softer but with the same amount of intensity.

"I meant getting your hair cut, but that works too" She laughed.

"I am not getting my hair cut" Zane said firmly

* * *

-

"I can't believe I got my hair cut" Zane said, staring at the very little hair that was now left on his head.

"It's not that short" Alexis said, running her hands through it.

Okay, so in reality, it was only a bit shorter then the length he usually wore it. It reaching his chin at the longest. But after several months of it being at his shoulders, the few inches missing felt, well, like their was something very much missing.

It had taken a lot of, well, persuasion, (Persuasion in the form of sex of course) to get him to agree to a "little trim"

Xander pulled his dad's hair.

"See, he likes it" Alexis smiled.

"Because he has yet to learn of the evils of the haircut"

"I can't believe you hate getting your hair cut, do you honestly believe looking like a girl with such long hair is attractive?" Alexis said, handing Xander to his dad.

"I did not look like a girl" Zane argued.

"Okay, maybe you didn't, but it was so in the way. It looks good not so long" She said.

"But your allowed to have long hair" Zane said.

"Well of course I am, I'm a girl" Alexis said.

"Xander, do you like me with long hair or short hair?" Zane asked the baby in his arms.

"DUEL!" Xander screeched.

"And by duel, he means, he likes your hair short, like his" Alexis said in a sing song voice.

Zane shot her a look of disbelief.

"His hair is only short because it's yet to grow long," Zane said.

"He was born with a full head of gorgeous hair, that's true, but he was born with his dads pretty face, and he should show it off" Alexis said.

"I think that you're trying to suggest something" Zane said.

"And what would that be?" Alexis smiled.

_You're clearly not using Xander as a metaphor for myself_.

Xander began to wail.

"Paparazzi alert?" Alexis asked.

Zane looked around.

"Cocky prick with a stick shoved up his ass alert" he dashed his eyes to the left.

Where, of course, Edo was walking down the street.

_Alexis getting to duel is great and all, but why couldn't it have been that Edo lost his memory?_

"Edo!" Alexis yelled to the silver haired boy.

Edo looked up and connected eyes with his friend, then his rival, and then the baby, which, if it wasn't for him, really wouldn't exist.

He walked over to meet them.

"No longer looking untidy Truesdale?" Edo said, gesturing his newly cut hair.

Zane balled up his fist, but then remembered there was a baby in his arms.

"Still a prick?" Zane said.

"Looser" Edo muttered.

"Stop fighting, not in front of the baby" Alexis glared, gesturing the smiling baby.

Edo looked at the infant.

"Takes after Zane, pity" He said.

"Edo!" Alexis said, smacking him upside the head.

"I just meant the blue hair" Edo lied.

Zane rolled his eyes.

"DUEL!" Xander yelled, shaking his teeny tiny fists in the air.

"Is that all he can say?" Edo asked.

"He can say mom and dad" Alexis grinned.

"His first word was duel, well, hopefully he'll have the combination of both your talents, he'd be pretty unstoppable if he did" Edo commented.

"He'll be pretty unstoppable with either of our talents, Edo, now I know that you're jealous that you have nobody in this entire world who loves you, but that doesn't mean you can try and ruin our happiness"

That's what Zane wanted to say, but Alexis beat him to the punch.

"Edo, I understand that you could quite likely be a better duelist, and I don't know because you two haven't dueled in over a year, and you both get better and better all the time, but honestly, could you please let it go that you beat him one time" Alexis whispered harshly to the silver haired boy.

"Sure, well, I hope the two of you are happy and Xander, just make sure that when you grow up you can kick your dads ass" Edo said to the squealing baby.

"Not like it's that hard" he mumbled.

"Don't think I didn't hear that" Zane said dangerously.

"Are you two going to the Christmas party next week?" Edo asked suddenly.

Zane did a double take, it was December already? Well, the fact that he was wearing a winter coat, and could see his breath when he spoke answered that for him.

"Unfortunately, and I assume your agent convinced you to go" Zane asked.

"Like wise, and who's watching the munchkin?" Edo said to Xander.

"My parents" Alexis said quickly.

"That's odd; I thought your parents didn't want you to have the baby?" Edo said.

"No their okay with it" Alexis said, becoming uncomfortable.

_And just where did he hear this from? The arrogant little…_

"You're lucky, if my parents ever found out that I got a girl pregnant" Edo was cut off.

"Your parents and your foster parents are both dead, Edo stop bullshitting" Zane grumbled.

"I'd watch my mouth if I was you" Edo said,

"BOYS!" Alexis yelled

"I need to go, I'll see you next week I guess, and Zane, I'd watch my anger if I was you" Edo said, giving Alexis a kiss on each cheek and going on his way.

"He is a dead man, I'm going to kill him next time we meet" Zane said.

"No your not, okay, so Edo is a cocky prick, just beat him at his own game" Alexis said.

Zane sent her a look.

"Three turns Truesdale, remember?" Alexis laughed.

_Oh, next time, its going to be a lot less then three turns. _

"Its kind of funny that were going to the Christmas party, you know, where it all started?" Alexis said.

"I guess you could look at it that way, or you could look at it as the only time Edo ever did anything right"

"I understand you hate him and all, but what do you mean, did something right?" Alexis asked.

"Got us drunk" Zane said.

Alexis gaped at him.

"That is awful!" She said.

"Alexis, I didn't mean it like that, you should know" Zane said.

"I know" Alexis said flatly.

"How cute a family outing" Zane looked up to see his publicist standing in front of them.

_Is there an asshole convention in town or something?_

"Actually, we were just leaving" Zane said.

"Did you read this week's schedule?" She asked.

Zane nodded.

"Good, I'll see you tonight" She grinned.

Zane scanned his mind and remembered, he had a duel that night.

"DUEL!" Xander yelled angrily at his dad's publicist.

"Smart boy you've got there" She said, walking in the same direction as Edo.

"da" Xander said, snuggling into his dad's shoulder.

"He's tired, let's go" Alexis said.

* * *

Back at the house-

Xander was asleep by the time Zane laid him down in his crib.

Christmas was right around the corner, not that Zane cared, growing up in a two religion house, he didn't really celebrate anything. Success was celebrated; good grades were celebrated, Christmas, not so much, Hanukah, nope.

He walked into the kitchen, where Alexis was putting dishes from the sink into the dishwasher.

"Are you sure that you want to go to the stupid Christmas party thing?" Zane asked sitting in one of the chairs.

"A lot of my friends are going to be there, yes, I want to go" Alexis said, not looking up.

"Are you positive? Because we could just stay behind with Xander if we wanted" Zane said.

"My parents already agreed, or, more like insisted, getting him back from the two of them is going to be harder then dueling Edo and Judai at once" Alexis said.

"That's not all that hard" Zane said.

"Okay, harder then ME attempting to duel the two of them" Alexis said.

"Cut yourself some slack, you've dueled Jaden twice, once during your first year, and once were you were a brainwashed cult follower" Zane said.

"Note that I almost won when I was a brainwashed cult follower" Alexis said flatly.

"And can we please not talk about any of that, I don't like to be reminded of that year at all, can you believe I slept in Chazz's room almost whole year?" Alexis said

"You did what?" Zane asked.

"I slept in an extra room in his suite, nothing major" Alexis said.

"Anyway, your going to be dueling rookies and people with lower ranks until you prove yourself, don't worry about it" Zane said.

"I wasn't until you brought it up" Alexis said.

_I brought it up?_

"Usually, you duel each person once, I'm dueling Jaden next week, and unless he gets into the finals I wont be dueling Edo" Zane said.

"Unless? He's undefeated Zane, just like you" Alexis said.

"Yeah, but he's a cocky prick with a stick up his ass, and he's dueling Jaden tonight, he'll loose" Zane explained.

"But then you'll have to duel Jaden in the finals" Alexis said.

"Not a big deal, I can beat Jaden," Zane said.

"You have a whole rock paper scissors thing going on. You can beat Jaden, but cant beat Edo, Jaden can beat Edo, but not you, and Edo can beat you, but usually looses to Jaden" Alexis laughed

"You're wrong"

Alexis turned around and put her hands on her hips.

"Edo **could** beat me, if we face each other, I'm going to destroy him" Zane said.

Alexis went back to the sink.

"Who are you dueling tonight?" Alexis asked.

"I don't know," Zane raked his mind, trying to remember who he was going to duel.

"I'm going to take a nap" Alexis yawned.

Zane looked up and nodded. Once Alexis was out of the room he grabbed his laptop from under the counter, and looked up the dueling schedule.

**Tonight's Duels: **

**Edo Phoenix VS. Jaden Yuki- 5:00 PM **

**Zane Truesdale VS. Chazz Princeton- 9:00 PM **

* * *

-Later that night.

Zane was standing in the green room. Chazz was late, and they needed to be prompted before the duel.

Finally, he walked into the room. Zane's "Camp" was sitting on one side of the room, Alexis sitting next to him, with Xander on her lap. His publicist, agent, ect. Behind him. Chazz's camp was on the other side, a league representative in the middle.

Chazz was clearly nervous, not only was it a highlighted duel, it was also against a person who he was sure to loose against.

"Okay, this duel is the regular rules, along with the regular time constrictions, no more then 5 minutes on each turn. Other then that, have fun, you two should be out on the platform in five minutes" The man said, pointing to the stairs leading to the arena main floor.

With that he exited.

"Good Luck Chazz" Alexis said with a grin.

She mouthed "thee turn" to her boyfriend.

Chazz couldn't keep his eyes off of Zane's girlfriend, and his son.

Everyone knew what he was thinking. _THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY GIRLFRIEND AND MY SON DAMMIT! _

"DUEL!" Xander squealed, making everyone but Zane and Chazz laugh.

"What's his name?" Chazz asked.

"Xander Kirin Truesdale," Alexis said.

"Truesdale? Then you two got married" Chazz said with venom in his voice, he already knew the answer.

" No, he has his dad's last name, its obnoxious for me to add mine on" Alexis said.

"I don't think so, who told you not to put your name on? Zane?" Chazz said.

"No, I decided it myself" Alexis said.

"Right, keep telling yourself that, and when your ready to dump that looser, I'll be waiting for you" Chazz said.

_That ass hole, well, he'll get what's coming to him now wont he_?

"Da Duel?" Xander asked, staring at Zane.

"Of course" Alexis told the baby.

"Mr. Truesdale, Mr. Princeton, two minutes to get to the arena" a loudspeaker crackled.

Chazz sent Alexis one glance, and then walked up the stairs, his camp followed.

Zane's camp followed and went into their seats.

Zane kissed Xander, and then Alexis.

And then they walked up the stairs too.

"LADIES AND GENTELMAN" The announcer said into the microphone.

Zane got his deck ready and made sure his disk was working.

"Will both competitors shake hands?"

Zane walked into the middle, where he stuck out his hand, not missing the look Chazz gave him. Spite, jealousy, fear, he couldn't really place it.

"DUEL!" Xander screamed.

The entire arena cracked up.

And what a duel it was.

"AND THREE TURNS TRUESDALE HAS HIS NINTH THREE TURN VICTORY!" The announcer said as Zane walked out of the arena.

_So maybe I was a bit harsh, but that guy has pissed me off from day one. _

Chazz got up off the ground where the last blast had sent him.

"Good Job" Chazz said through gritted teeth.

Zane walked out of the arena, back to his "locker room" where his publicist was waiting.

"I like your new hair style, not to long, but not to short" She commented.

_Not to short says you_ Zane though annoyed.

"I know, and it was so hard to convince him to get it done too" Alexis said, walking into the room, Xander laughing in her arms.

"How'd you convince him to get his hair cut? I've been looking for a fool proof way to get him to agree to things for months!" His publicist asked Alexis.

Alexis turned red.

"Well. Um. I, just, um," Alexis stuttered.

"You… Oh, OH!" His publicist had figured it out and was now a pretty pink color herself.

"I believe you said it was only once" She whispered.

"I don't think my sex life is any of your concern" Zane said with a completely straight face.

"ZANE!" Alexis yelled, hitting him upside the head.

_Jesus Christ that hurt_

"um, well, I need to go, I have a client that has a, bye!"

Zane set Xander down on the couch.

"I finally found a fool proof way to make that woman shut her mouth" Zane said.

Alexis stared at him.

"Mention Sex" He said.

If he had been home, and it had only been the three of them, (Alexis Xander, and himself) he may have laughed. But laughter didn't come easy when other people might be around.

"Very funny, well, Its Xander's bed time, lets go home" Alexis said, grabbing the baby off of his seat, where he had fallen asleep. Xander had his thumb in his mouth and was currently cooing.

* * *

What will happen to the royal couple on the anniversary of the night that started it all? Will Edo ever get that stick out of his ass? And will Zane ever find a sane publicist?

Find out In the future chapters!


	11. Oh the possiblities!

I'm really sorry, I just watched a certain episode of GX, and have lost all will to write.

If you watch the Japanese, you'll understand what I'm saying.

I wrote the last few pages while denying myself any sunlight, telling myself I needed to get this chapter done.

I'll have a one shot out next week. Only read it if you follow the Japanese GX

* * *

In the span of a week, Xander had learned a few more words.

Card, well, that one was a given for him to learn.

Dummy, Zane cracked up uncontrollably when he found out that his son addressed both of his uncles this way. All were scarred for life at the witnessing of this laughter.

And, of course, every baby's favorite word: No.

"Zane, wake up" Alexis said, shaking the sleeping brunette.

It was almost ten AM, Zane had gotten in late the past night after a duel and being forced to go to the after party.

Zane grumbled something incomprehensible.

"Zane, it's late, your publicist is having a heart attack" Alexis said, shaking him harder.

_Good, maybe she'll drop dead and leave me alone for once. _Zane thought, pulling the covers over his head.

"Zane! Wake up sleepy head" She said, nudging the twenty three year old.

Zane just stayed silent.

"Zane, I slept with Edo last night" Alexis whispered into his ear.

"No you didn't" Zane grumbled.

Alexis was beginning to get pissed, real, real pissed.

She did the only thing she could think of.

She tickled him.

"FUCK! HAHAHAHA!" Zane laughed.

"See. Your awake, now get dressed" Alexis said, trying to pull him out of the bed. Easier said than done, as he beat her by at least six inches, and thirty pounds, probably more.

He didn't know what was more pathetic, the fact that he was ticklish, or the fact that Alexis couldn't even pull him out of bed.

"Zane get up! NOW!" she screeched.

Rolling his eyes, Zane, as slowly as possible, pulled himself into the land of the living.

"I'll be back in a few hours, watch Xander, please and thank you!" she said as quickly as possible before running out of the door.

_Lovely. _He thought sarcastically.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Xander was crawling around the house, screaming at the top of his little lungs.

Zane ran over and scooped him up.

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" Xander shrieked.

"Yes" Zane said, before smelling that distinct smell.

_Just great_.

Holding his son as far from his face as possible, Zane set him down on the changing table.

If anyone had seen Zane changing a diaper, they probably would have laughed themselves into submission. Of course, they also would have had to explain to him why they were in his house.

"CARD!" Zane rolled his eyes at this statement.

"Is not a food, as much as you beg to differ" yes, Xander had started teething, and one of his favorite foods was cards, and not just any cards, only the rare ones. Zane and Alexis had to keep there decks locked up at all times thanks to Xander's fetish.

The phone rang.

_Please oh mighty gawd don't let it be…_

It was.

"Hi, I see you finally woke up huh? Well, I need you at the office ASAP, see you soon" She had hung up.

Zane, unfortunately, could not argue with her, which is how he found himself in the back seat of a cab, holding his four and a half month old son on his lap.

It was a funny and rare sight indeed, to see Zane walk into the office with a baby on his hip. He loved his son dearly, but he honestly could not stand looking like a pansy with a baby, so Alexis held carried him when they were in public.

"Zane, and Xander, how cute are the two of you!?" An intern squealed.

Zane barged right into the office, to see his publicist sitting in a chair, looking at some papers.

"One day you're going to come in here, and see something you don't want to see, if you keep barging in like that" She warned.

_Please tell me you're retiring. _

"Anyway, would you care to guess why you're here?"

"No"

"It has come to my attention that a certain person is entering the pro leagues next season as a rookie, would you care to share with me why you did not tell me?" She asked.

_Because you're an ass hole and Alexis doesn't deserve to spend any more time with you then she already does?_

"It's none of your business. She doesn't need a publicist" Zane said.

_And nor do I_

"All pro league duelists need a publicist, whether they think so or not. and do you know why?" She asked.

"Does this conversation have a point?" Zane asked.

"Yes… Have Alexis's agent contact me" She said.

"She doesn't have one" Zane said.

"Doesn't have an agent?" She said this like it was profanity.

"GET GORILLA ON THE PHONE, NOW!" She screamed to her secretary.

Zane rolled his eyes and put Xander down in one of the armchairs facing the desk.

_I should just leave. _He thought.

"YOU ARE NOT LEAVING UNTILL THIS GIRL HAS COVERAGE!" She yelled, reading Zane's facial expression.

"Dummy!" Xander shrieked.

Zane coughed to cover up his laugh.

His current source of anoyment was done on the phone.

"She has representation, we'll work on publicity once the season starts" She said.

_Has it ever occurred to you that you piss me off. _

"NO!" Xander screamed.

"No, no what Xander?" His publicist asked.

Xander sucked his thumb.

"Don't you want your mommy to have representation?"

"no" Xander put his thumb right back into his mouth.

"But don't you want your mommy to duel next season?"

"Dummy!" Xander laughed.

"But your mommy is exited to duel next season"

"No" Xander laughed.

_If I wasn't already convinced she was crazy, I'd be concerned that she's having a conversation with an infant. _

"She isn't?"

"Card" Xander laughed.

"I think Xander doesn't want Alexis to duel next season"

_The words hit head here just appeared on the desk. _

"I think that I should not listen to a woman who just had a conversation with an infant who babbles incoherently" Zane murmured.

"Zane, a baby can convey his feelings in very few words"

_And you would know because… _

"as much faith as I have in your baby comprehension, I need to be going now" Zane said.

"Remember, there's the Christmas party tomorrow, and you PROMISED you would go" She reminded.

_Shit_

"I don't even celebrate Christmas" Zane said.

"And yet, your still going, goodbye Zane, and If I get wind that you were not at the party, I swear I will make your life a living hell"

_Already is bitch. _

"Bye Xander" She said, blowing the baby a kiss.

"Come on, lets go disinfect your body Xander" Zane mumbled.

"Xander, I don't care if you're the best duelist since the king of games himself, you're never getting a publicist" He said to the laughing baby.

"DUEL!" Xander shrieked.

Alexis was sleeping on the couch when Zane walked back into the house.

"Lexi?" Zane shook the sleeping blond.

"Ugh, my head" Alexis said, sitting up.

"Where were you?" she asked.

"My publicists, she had a fit seeing the roster for next year, and took the liberty of signing you" Zane said.

"Oh, fun, more time with the awful bitch" Alexis said.

"Where's Xander?" she asked.

"MA!" Xander crawled to the couch.

"You have fun with Daddy and the awful bitch?" Alexis asked.

"Itch!" Xander mimicked.

Alexis dropped him on the couch in shock.

"Xander!" Alexis yelled

"NO!" Xander yelled and then laughed.

Alexis sent Zane a look, as to say:

_Did he just say what I think he said? _

Alexis dragged Zane into the bedroom.

"Our four month old son did not just say bitch, did he?" Alexis asked.

"He said itch" Zane said,.

Alexis sighed.

"He is so smart, we need to watch our mouths around him" Alexis said.

Zane put his hands on her shoulders, and leaned his head against hers.

"Don't worry about it" he said.

"He's staying at my parent's tomorrow night, I have every right to be worried" Alexis said.

"It'll be fine" Zane said, giving her a small kiss.

Xander began to cry from the living room.

"He hasn't had lunch yet" Zane said.

Alexis scooped up the baby and sat him in the high chair.

"Zane, your mom called about something" Alexis said, feeding Xander.

Zane rolled his eyes and went into the bedroom to make a call.

"Big Brother!" Syrus answered.

"Mom called me?" Zane asked.

"Riiight, MOM THE PHONE IS FOR YOU!" Syrus yelled.

"Hi Zane, so I was watching the news this morning, and I heard about this disease that is being spread around taxi cabs, and it can be nearly fatal to infants! Please tell me that you've invested in a car" His mom rushed.

"No, I've been a bit busy, I'll think about it, okay mother?" Zane said.

"Think, oh, no, you're not just going to think, your going to do! I'll buy you a car for Hanukah, we'll go out in the morning and pick one out" His mom said.

"I have an obligation tomorrow night mother" Zane said.

"Look at you, being all formal, don't worry, I'll have you back by lunch time" Mrs.Truesdale laughed.

"I'll pick you up in the morning" She said.

_Just lovely_

"I need to go mom, I'll see you tomorrow" Zane said.

"Of course, I'll swing around at nine"

And then she hung up.

"Alexis, are you doing anything tomorrow?" Zane asked.

"Besides the party, not really, why?" She asked from the kitchen.

"I need to see my mom about something, and someone needs to watch Xander" Zane said.

"Yeah, no big deal" Alexis said.

_Is it just me, or does she sound nervous about something?_

-the next day.

"So, how are the two of you?" Mrs. Truesdale asked once they were inside the car.

"Fine" Zane said, rolling his eyes slightly.

"And Xander is already talking! He's really quick as a whip! And he's the spitting image of you" She said.

"I know, he's a great kid" Zane said.

"I know I promised not to bring it up or anything, but have you even thought about marriage?" Mrs. Truesdale smiled.

Zane coughed in answer.

"That wasn't an answer" She said.

"No, I haven't thought about it" Zane said.

"And why not? aren't you living together? You have a baby and a pretty stable job, why haven you thought about it?" She asked.

"Because I'm not really interested in adding another piece of stress to my life" Zane said.

"A wife is stressful? Are you kidding me Zane?"

"I mean a wedding mother" Zane said.

"You love her, why won't you do anything about it?" She asked.

"Mom, this isn't exactly a great time to talk about this" Zane said, avoiding eye contact.

"Zane, then when would be a good time to talk about it? When Alexis gets pregnant again? And don't tell me you two aren't having sex, I can tell. Anyway, what is keeping you from asking her?" Zane couldn't help but blush, was it that obvious that the two of them were…?

"Mom, I'm not saying that we are, but if we were, we'd be smarter about it this time. Anyway, mom, I don't know why I don't want to get married." Zane said.

"You are, but anyway, you love her, and she clearly loves you, and you two have been together for years! Just try and think about why you aren't ready to get married"

Zane sat up. Why **wasn't **he ready to get married? Well, he was only 23 for one thing, Alexis was only 20, and had just had her birthday at that. He loved her, and couldn't imagine ever being with anyone else, but at the same time, he didn't want to make her feel pressured. And there was the whole statistic about married couples who lived together before getting married. But they practically were, they lived together, slept together (in both senses of the word), had a baby together, and soon enough, would be working together, sorta anyway.

"I don't know" Zane said.

"You don't know why?"

"Mother! I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her. But…"

_I don't want to propose only a year after we both decided we weren't ready_.

"I understand you're scared, but Alexis is crazy about you…" His mother placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know how she feels about it" Zane said.

"I do" She said.

"You're my mother, you're supposed to say that, but Alexis isn't a predictable girl, and I don't believe anything about her until it comes out of her mouth" Zane said.

"No, I really do, I had Mrs. Rhodes grill her yesterday" She grinned.

Zane's eyes bugged out.

"You did what!?"

"Well, we talk a lot now. Here's the thing, last year, we thought that you weren't ready to get married because you weren't sure about your feelings… but you've proven that that is incorrect. I think you're not ready because you're not sure about **her** feelings, right? Zane, According to her mother, Alexis would be thrilled if you proposed to her; she just doesn't think you're aware of the fact that there is a difference between being together and living together, and being married. I'd propose to her tonight if I were you" She said.

Zane couldn't believe his ears.

"Mom, you're manipulating us into getting married." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Zane, I am not, in any means manipulating you, I'm just giving you the shove you need"

"I can't just propose at the party, in front of everyone" Zane said.

"Oh yes you can, I happen to know that there are some people there who don't think you two are really together, prove them wrong. And take this, just incase you have that epiphany before I'm old and dead!" She said, handing him a small box.

Zane opened it.

"Grandma's wedding ring?"

"In her will, it said that she leaves it to whichever of her grandsons that pops the question first"

_Man, my grandma was pretty weird in her old age. _

His mom pulled up in front of his child hood home.

"Its from all of us, happy holidays"

In the driveway was sitting a new car. Okay, so it was probably used, but it was a car, and it was his! He had gotten his license the day he could, but his dad hardly trusted him with a crappy used car, none the less a semi brand new one.

"Drive it out tonight, see what everyone thinks!"

"Mom, thank you, for, (pause) both of my presents" he said.

"Nu-uh, one is for your whole family, the other is for Alexis." She grinned.

Zane hugged his mother.

"Go, you have a party to go to, and by the way, tell Alexis whatever she did to convince you to get a decent hair cut, good job." She said.

Zane opened the door and got into the new car.

No, this car was definitely not used. It was nice, a leather interior, with wood paneling. And a touch screen navigation system.

_Okay, lets see if I can get home without crashing it. _

You see, Zane has a slight, problem. We all have it from time to time, its just, Zane has it more often then most.

Road Rage.

And living in a city full of traffic and stupid drivers only makes it worse.

"Gawd dammit, where the hell did you get your license lady!?" Zane yelled.

Ah, the sweet joys of driving in the city.

After quite a while, Zane pulled into the driveway.

It was almost four. He had an hour to get ready. Then they needed to drop Xander across town. Then they would need to drive to a nice hotel in the middle of the city (and the traffic) and hopefully make it about a half hour late.

That is, if Alexis was aware of the time frame.

Zane walked into the house, and was met by the sound of a hair dryer.

"Zane, is that you?" Alexis asked.

"yes" Zane said.

He walked to his closet and dropped the "gift" in the toe of one of his boots. No way was he even THINKING about touching that box for at least another year… right?

_Of course, there is no way you are proposing tonight, no fucking way in hell._

"How's your mom?" Alexis asked from the bathroom.

"Annoying" Zane said.

"My mom was just as bad yesterday, and this morning… oh, I already dropped Xander off." She said.

Zane grunted in response.

"You are impossible Zane Truesdale." Alexis said, coming out of the bathroom.

He didn't respond.

"Zane, why are you in the closet?"

_Closet, Rainbow dragon, man that is going to get old real soon. _

"Looking for something" he said.

"Go shower, we only have two hours, and wet hair will ruin your suit" Alexis said.

"Have I ever mentioned that I hate parties?" Zane said.

"Only every time we need to go to one. Now don't worry, its not going to kill you" Alexis said.

_That's what Ryo thought about underground duels_ Zane thought.

Alexis stared at him.

"What are you doing?"

"Breaking the fourth wall" Zane said.

"Go shower." She said, looking on the bureau for some kind of jewelry.

_Ugh, ugh, ugh, I hate stupid pro league parties, full of stupid people, who I couldn't care less about, and or hate my guts, not that I care. Why the hell do people make me go to these things? _

Zane stepped into the shower and let the cold water run over him a minuet before letting it become warm.

Later:

Zane was waiting in the living room, for Alexis, again. The party started at seven, and it was six thirty, just enough time to get there if there was no traffic (not likely on Christmas eve).

"Alexis, as much as I love the fact that were going to be late, we need to get moving" Zane said.

"Coming!" Alexis said.

She came into the hallway, pulling her heels on.

She was dressed in black cocktail gown. It had a halter top and a v neck, not that you saw so much. It hit the ground. It had transparent beads around the v neck, the strap, and going down the back, as well as a few lines down the front.

Her hair was curled around her shoulders, she was wearing makeup, and a pair of chandelier earrings, made out of similar beads to the ones on the dress.

_No! Zane! YOU WILL NOT GET A NOSEBLEED_! He thought, tilting his head back, just incase.

"Wow" he said.

"You look pretty wow yourself" She smiled

Zane was shocked at how easy it was to get ready with such short hair. No gel, no styling, no nothing, it just sat.

"Are you sure you're not dressed like that to impress anyone?" Zane said, smiling.

"Nobody but you, and I've already got you wrapped around my finger don't I?" She laughed.

_Finger, impressed_ Zane began getting a bit, um, nervous.

"I, left something in our room, hold on" Zane said.

Alexis made a face.

"Since when do you forget things?" She asked.

Zane glared at her.

Alexis tapped her foot on the floor as Zane went into the room.

"Got it" He said.

"What?" Alexis asked.

"Car keys" he said.

"You don't have a car" Alexis said.

"That's where I was today" Zane smirked.

He pulled the car keys out of his pocket.

-Later.

"Zane, don't be so pissed, were a half hour late, wasn't that your goal?" Alexis asked.

"Make sure that I'm not drinking" Zane said.

"Trust me, way ahead of you" Alexis smirked.

"No, I'm driving" Zane said.

Alexis rolled her eyes.

Zane and Alexis got out of the car, he handed the keys to the valet.

They walked into the ballroom. Several people were already in there, talking, a few dancing.

All of their group who was at the party were sitting at a table near the bar. Everyone doing shots.

Alexis walked over.

"Lex!" Jaden shouted.

"Hey Jaden, how are you?" She asked.

"Sweet!" He was grinning, with a red blush on his cheeks.

"Jaden, how many have you shot?" Zane said with a glare.

"Four!" Jaden yelled, with his hands up in the air, grinning like a maniac.

"Care to join us?" Edo asked with a little smirk.

"I'm Driving" Zane said.

"So you finally won enough duels to buy a car?" Edo taunted.

"I'm 11 and 0, your 10 and 1, you shouldn't open your mouth." Zane said.

"But how many times have you won the whole season?" Edo smirked.

_How many times have you gotten laid little man? _Zane considered saying this, and then concluded it would be too rude.

"That's what I thought," Edo smirked.

_I didn't think it was possible, but I think he's an even bigger prick when he's drunk. What an ass hole… _

"Christmas spirit?" Alexis asked.

"Hey Alexis, no I think certain people here lack that trait, and how are you?" Johan asked.

"I'm fine" Alexis said.

"You seem well rested, a rare trait for a new mother" Chazz said.

"Xander is loud during the day, but he really defines the term sleep like a baby" Alexis smiled, taking a seat at the table.

The table basically looked like this.

E Jaden Johan C

d h

o a

Alexis Zane z

z

Edo Jaden Johan and Chazz all reached for the platter where the shots were sitting.

"Zane's driving, Alexis you in?" Edo asked.

"Um, no, its okay… I'm not really a big fan of drinking" Alexis said with a smile.

_Besides, its going to be a hell of a lot more fun to watch the lot of you get drunk _she thought.

"3, 2, 1, BANZAI!" Jaden yelled, everyone tilted their heads back and drank the bitter liquid.

-5 minutes (and 12 shots later)

Chazz had gotten up to get another platter of shots.

Edo was laughing while trying to bounce a quarter into the empty shot glasses.

Jaden was sitting on Johan's lap, which made a certain blue haired duelist, **very **uncomfortable.

Or in other words, the four duelists were thoroughly and utterly drunk.

There was apparently some kind of music being played and about two dozen couples were dancing.

Alexis spotted someone very familiar on the dance floor.

"Is that his daughter?" Alexis asked Zane.

"Who?" Zane asked.

"The girl dancing with seto kaiba" Alexis said.

"I hope so" Zane said, his mind debating whether she was family, or something else.

The girl had to be their age, maybe younger, and she had to be at least ten years younger then her dance partner.

"Edo, do you know who that is?" Alexis asked, pointing to the girl on the dance floor.

"I have no clue, but she is hot" Edo said, with a silly grin on his face.

_Drunken edo, oh the possibilities… _

"Why don't you ask her to dance?" Zane said in a mock helpful voice.

Edo smiled and got up from his chair.

Alexis stomped on Zane's foot, hard.

"ZANE! What are you thinking?!" She hissed.

"That that ass hole is getting what he deserves" Zane said.

Chazz was long gone, and Jaden and Johan were now making out, (which Zane was trying to ignore) the two sane people of the table watched as Edo went onto the dance floor.

He said something to Kaiba and the girl, and then she started dancing with him (!!!)

When the song was over, Edo brought the girl over to the table.

Chazz had finally returned with the shots.

"Karin, would you like to join us?" Edo asked.

_Karin _took a seat next to Edo, and ended up drinking more then anyone else could.

It was almost midnight, and Zane and Alexis said their goodbyes to their friends (and rival)

Zane was a bit tired, but something was itching at him. He felt the weight in his pocket, from a box that shouldn't have weighed all that much.

Zane got the car from the valet, and he and Alexis climbed inside.

"See, much easier then drinking and then having to stay the night" Alexis said with a grin.

Zane began to drive, when they were nearing their neighbor hood, Zane took a left where he should have taken a right.

"Zane, you took a wrong turn" Alexis said.

Zane remained silent, and kept driving.

"Zane?" Alexis said uncertainty.

It was dark, and Alexis couldn't tell were they were.

Zane stopped the car. He kept the headlights on.

"Go outside for a second" Zane said, getting something out from the back seat.

Alexis looked at him skeptically, but none the less, got out of the car.

Zane joined her one minuet afterward, holding out a blanket, with a basket in one hand.

"Zane, what's going on?" Alexis asked.

"Simple. There's a meteor shower tonight, and you are going to watch it with me" Zane said with a grin that he couldn't contain. Not that Alexis could see it, it was too dark.

Zane laid out the blanket and pulled out the basket. Inside was some cake, some fruit, and some champagne. The expensive kind.

"Zane, I'm in a ball gown, we can't sit out here like this!" Alexis said.

They were on top of a hill, one overlooking the suburb where they lived, and the city.

Alexis took off her shoes and sighed, when Zane wanted to do something, he did it.

Alexis dug through the basket, and pulled out a piece of fruit.

"Its cold!" She said, popping it into her mouth.

"Hence, a second blanket" Zane said, handing it to her.

Alexis scooted next to Zane.

"Your warmer" She said, leaning on his shoulder.

The meteor shower began, it was a small one, but very cool, none the less.

Zane opened up the champagne and poured two glasses.

Alexis took hers and looked at Zane.

"you cant drink that!" Alexis said.

"One glass won't kill me" Zane said. His voice shook, and Alexis didn't miss that.

Alexis lifted the glass up to her lips when she noticed an unusual glimmer.

She chugged the drink, keeping her lips closed enough that only the liquid could pass through.

She rattled her glass, and then dumped the "intruder" into her hand.

Zane snatched it out of her hand.

"I really don't know what to say right now." He started.

Alexis almost gasped, she had suspected it, but still couldn't believe it was happening.

"I love you, to the point where it confuses me. And I know we both agreed not until were ready, but I am ready, but, if your not, I'm willing to wait for you, Alexis, will you marry me?"

The next morning.

_Oh my head, how much did I drink last night? _The thought had to squeeze its way through his massive hangover headache.

His eyes bugged out.

_Karin!????? _He thought, looking at the naked female who was using his stomach for a pillow.

Yup, Edo was in deep, deep shit.

-To be continued.

* * *

Yup, there's more, only one to three chapters left, I'm not sure were I'm going to end it.

Still too depressed to update, this was very forced, expect an update sometime in the next few weeks, maybe…

10join

Fei!


	12. A Mind reader,MIA duelist, and Maui

I want my cookie!

Disclaimer: I think, that if I owned GX, I wouldn't be babysitting my cousins, I'd be firing the writers for killing Ryo! (Grrrr!)

People always have a time of the day when they think the most. For some people, it's when they first wake up, dreams still fresh in their minds. For others, its right before they fall asleep, being in touch with their subconscious helps. For Zane, it was somewhere between the two.

Not that he had much time to think nowadays, it was the end of the season, meaning he was busier than ever. Nothing was fast anymore, his opponents were anything but easy, and provided a harder and harder challenges every match. He was the only one left who was undefeated. The bets for the people in the final round were him, Judai, and Edo.

He had to weigh his options before rooting (silently) for one of them. If Judai was in the final round, he was pretty sure he would win. Meaning he would take home his first championship.

On the other hand: if Edo was in the finals, he could crush that cocky little prick with that stick wedged up where the sun doesn't shine. But, if he lost…

He shook that thought out of his head, there was no way he was EVER loosing to that little kid ever again.

Well, there were good things that were coming out of "Hell Month" (his nickname for the month of playoffs before the final match)

One, it was almost over. And two: he wouldn't need to see his publicist AT ALL for almost three months!

And there was the whole, not having to work thing. Not that his job was hard, or annoying at all (aside from all the publicity things). But not having to work was going to be pretty nice after how hectic the last year and a half had been.

It was five P.M. and he had a match that night (shocker)

Alexis had something, somewhere, and had decided to take Xander with her.

Not that he was complaining. Not that he wasn't either. But when they didn't show up, it somehow made the match easier. Nobody to impress, no press trying to take a picture of them every five seconds.

Of course, his publicist hated when she didn't show up.

"_Zane, Zane, Zane, we don't want any rumors going around, do we?" _

Not that anything was going wrong. No, actually, everything was just fine, pretty great, at home.

Their engagement hadn't been announced, not that he was complaining. It was a lot less, irritating when the press wasn't involved. Of course, his mother and future mother in law both blew a circuit when they visited on Christmas day.

Needless to say, he was none too thrilled when they had wanted to scream it to the world.

So what was going on in his head at the moment?

Nothing really, he was sitting, reading, the news was on in the background. He really just wanted to see who had won that morning's matches. It was about a month after Christmas. Meaning, that more and more people were getting eliminated from the finals. He wasn't very worried. The finals played out like a big tournament. There were four brackets, each with each power level evened out. As to say, there were a certain amount of bad duelists, decent ones, and great ones, in each bracket.

Edo and Judai were in brackets one and two. Zane was in bracket four. Which was to say that the two of them, to get into the finals, were going to have to beat one another. He had lucked out. The best duelist in bracket three had been kicked out of the pro leagues because he was caught doing pot. So, he was pretty much guaranteed to be in the final match.

Not that he was going to get cocky, after all, he had made that mistake before. But it was nice to know that he had a great chance of being the champion that season.

Zane picked up the remote and turned up the volume on the TV.

"And In the Dueling World, Edo Phoenix was forced to forfeit his match against Dominic Jot due to not showing up. It seems that top notch duelists have a certain knack for dropping in the heat of finals season. He has not made a statement to the public, and we are eagerly awaiting his comment on this match. In other news…"

Zane's jaw dropped. Edo had NEVER in the four years he had been dueling in the pro leagues, dropped out of a match. There were stories about him dueling with the flu, and winning. There was no way Edo had just decided to "not show up" for his match.

Zane picked up his phone, and dialed 2.

She picked up on the first ring.

"Zane?" Alexis asked.

"Did you see the news?" Zane asked.

"No, I'm a little busy at the moment" Alexis said, she sounded stressed.

"Edo forfeited" Zane said.

Two words that were less likely than "Zane skipped around in a pink bathrobe while singing funkytown."

Silence.

"Do you know anything about it?" Zane asked.

More Silence.

"Alexis?"

"No… Way…" Alexis said, the sheer amazement in her voice gave Zane a perfect picture of her face.

"Do you?" Zane asked

"No," Her voice went up on the no, "I have to go, I'll talk to you later" She said.

"Hn" Zane said.

Alexis laughed.

"I should send you back to school, that most definitely is not a word" the line went blank.

Zane sighed.

He really shouldn't have been so, well, enthusiastic about this. Interested was a better word.

Why was he so interested? He hated Edo, Oh how he hated him. But for some reason, He really wanted to know what was going on.

He only had one choice.

He would ask the nosiest person he knew.

His publicist.

-

Zane parked his car in the back, he was about an hour early, which was late by his standards. He hated being noticed on his way in, so he always snuck in the back. Unfortunately, there were already people there. Long lines of people trying to get those last minuet tickets. People discreetly buying from shady looking men in long coats.

"Mr. Truesdale, good to see you're here, we have some press" His publicist greeted.

Zane held in his urge to roll his eyes, there was press in the vicinity and he did not want to look stupid.

Of course, he knew that he had a few interviews, but he wasn't exactly thrilled for what magazines they were for. One Tabloid and a young boys dueling magazine. The kind he read when he was younger. But honestly: those things were full of crap, and it was fairly annoying how they tried to find a deep significance behind moves you made years ago that you don't even remember.

"Zane, don't mention you know what" His publicist whispered.

He didn't know how his publicist had figured out that they were engaged. Alexis didn't wear her ring very often… really only in the house or when she went out with her family. But she knew, somehow. It was actually pretty creepy how she knew everything. This was exactly why Zane was going to ask her about Edo.

"Mr. Truesdale, what do you think about Edo Phoenix's forfeit?" A reporter asked.

"I'm a bit disappointed. I was looking forward to making up the match we lost last year" Zane said, acting as regal as a Kaiser would.

"Is it true that you bribed the pro league to let Alexis duel next year?" The tabloid reporter asked. He could tell she was tabloid from her trashy makeup and ill fitting bright red blazer. Also how she was listening to every word he said and never looked at anything but him.

"No, She didn't tell me until after she knew she was accepted" Zane said.

One of the major tabloid rules, don't give them any room to interpret.

"Oh, so do the two of you often keep secrets from one another? Are you two fighting?" the reporter asked.

"No, She didn't tell anyone until she was sure." Zane said, keeping his back straighter than his face. Posture could give away a lie or a cover-up easier than anything.

"And Xander Kirin, do you have any plans for him?" The reporter grinned.

Zane thought for a second. This question could easily be a trap.

"Plans? Would you like to clarify on that?" Zane said.

"Are you teaching him to duel?"

"He has a fondness for cards, and if he wants to learn to duel, he will learn" Zane said.

"Fondness for cards?"

"There his favorite teething toy" Zane said with a straight face. This comment made the reporters laugh.

"Are you nervous for this duel?"

Zane sighed, of course he was nervous. This was the last match before the quarter finals. This opponent was a man who he had never met, dueled, and had barely heard of.

"I hope I have a reason to be" Zane said.

The press had gotten what they wanted, and moved on. Leaving Zane alone with his publicist.

"What happened with Edo?" Zane asked.

"Win the duel, I'll tell you after" his publicist smirked.

_Oh, so that's how this is going to be. _

"Is he that tough?" Zane asked, it somehow sounded more like a statement than a question

"No, you'll beat him, but I don't want you to get cocky this close to finals… especially with Edo out of the way, you'll be able to win this season, easily"

Zane swallowed hard. With Edo out of the way? Clearly she knew something he didn't, and it scared him, did his publicist have something to do with this?

"Now Zane, is there any reason your fiancé isn't here?" His publicist said, loudly.

"Yes" Zane said, beginning to walk to the greenroom to get ready.

"And just what is your reason?"

"She had something to do today" Zane said.

"Care to elaborate?"

"No"

His publicist did not look amused in the least. Zane could tell she was looking forward to the end of the season as much as he was.

"Four matches, Truesdale, then Maui" She grinned.

_Damn, she really can read minds, Maui? That means she's leaving the country! YES! _

Zane was doing a happy dance inside. Not that Zane danced… but you get the idea.

-That night.

Zane was pissed; his publicist had disappeared right after he had started the match, so he STILL had no idea where Edo was. He went through all the possibilities on the drive home, but none of them fit.

When he got home, all the lights were off…

_That's weird; its pretty late… is she home yet? _

Zane was a tiny bit worried; Alexis didn't like to go to bed before Zane did. Zane dug the key out of his jacket pocket. This winter was harsh, and it was only getting colder. He fumbled with the tiny key through his leather gloves. Finally, he managed to get they key in the lock, only to find that the door was opened.

_Maybe she is home; she's always forgetting to lock the door. _Zane thought, hoping he was correct.

He walked into the living room, and closed the door quickly. He took off his gloves, then his coat, then his shoes. He noticed that Alexis's boots weren't next to the door like they usually were.

_Maybe she carried them and put them away. _Zane thought. It was something that she always forgot to do. Not that he cared, its not like she wore her dirty shoes in the house or anything like that. Zane liked things to be neat, not immaculate, but neat.

His shoes in one hand, his briefcase in the other, he walked into the kitchen.

One thing Alexis always did was put dishes into the dishwasher. She was a hard core believer in "More germs in your kitchen sink then in your toilet" and made sure to wash it before she slept.

Weird, but true.

He switched on the light and put his briefcase on the counter. He counted in his head before turning to the sink.

Which still had the breakfast dishes in it.

_Where the hell is she? _Zane wondered nervously.

It wasn't so much he was worried about Alexis, who had proved that she could take care of herself (somewhat) but the fact that Xander was with her.

Just to make sure that he was right, Xander walked into the nursery, which was empty.

Now, Zane was just pissed. It was almost midnight, Alexis should have been home, or should have called him at least.

Zane pulled out his cell phone and checked his recent calls.

**One Missed Call **

**Rhodes A. **

Zane hit send twice, and waited for her to pick up.

"Alexis?" Zane asked when the ringing stopped.

"Z-Zane, oh, hi, um, how did your duel go?" Alexis asked.

"Same thing, Different day, where are you?" Zane asked.

"Oh, I'm, at the… um" Alexis mumbled something he couldn't hear.

"Alexis, where are you?" Zane asked.

"The Hospital"

Two words that made him panic.

"And what are you doing at the hospital" Zane asked.

Alexis paused.

"Alexis, What's going on?" Zane asked harshly.

Sorry about the short chapter. I'm really trying to finish this fic, but I've been really busy with back to school stuff.

Edo is in Deep Shit, DEEP DEEP shit, deeper than you can imagine. You'll find out what's going on eventually. (Evil Laugh)

Other than that, I'm going to try to finish ASAP, but, because I have no time to do yoga anymore (my writers block blocker) and my in home studio (Basically, it's a dance studio, in one of my basements) is under construction so I don't have room to do it anywhere. And I start school tomorrow…

10join

Fei!


	13. A Fight,The Flu, and Free Pocky

Interesting thing I was looking up yesterday

Zane: Means Beloved and it can be a girl's name,

Ryo means excellent and is also a unisex name.

Alexis means protector of men.

Xander also means Protector of men (I didn't know that they meant the same thing until last night)

Aster is a girl's name (laughs) it means star.

Edo Means Wealthy Guardian (actually, that's what Ed means, I got as close as I could)

Jaden doesn't have a meaning.

BTW:

Fei is an alternate spelling of Faye, and it means Elf Or Fairy

And my full name (Jillian Sarah) means youthful princess

Wow! that means that when I write my name out Jillian "Fei" Sarah, it means Youthful Fairy Princess

WHAT THE HELL WERE MY PARENTS THINKING!?

And why didn't I know this when I was five!? I could have told everyone my name meant youthful fairy princess! Although, I didn't go by Fei until I was about 11…

Ew, I just realized my first name can be associated with Gai and Lee from naruto... ew…

I have to say, looking up baby names is a hell of a lot of fun!

* * *

"Alexis, what's going on?" Zane asked.

"Well, um…" Alexis started.

"Where's Xander" Zane asked, furiously.

"Sleeping" Alexis said calmly.

"Alexis, why are you at a hospital" Zane spoke as if he was speaking to a child, slowly and enunciating every word.

"Xander, he's sick Zane, He's really really sick" Alexis said, Zane could tell she was crying.

Zane was quiet, mostly out of fear.

"With What?" Zane asked, he didn't want to hear the word Sick and Xander in the same sentence without knowing just what was wrong.

"Some form of the Flu… but it's really contagious, and it's really-" Alexis cried to hard to finish her sentence.

"It's really?" Zane turned the lights off, grabbed his things, put on his shoes, and ran to the car. The few seconds it was taking Alexis to answer seemed like an eternity.

"D-d-d-deadly" Alexis sobbed.

Zane knew she was a mess of snot and tears, her face was red, and she was probably slumped onto the ground.

Zane swore when the word registered. Deadly? It wasn't possible for this to be happening, Xander was a genius, he was speaking almost six months early. He was a sweet little baby, with an adorable laugh. The image of Xander's little body, lying pale in a crib crossed his mind. He shook his head, as if to get the thought out of his mind. It wasn't possible for this to be true, was it? Zane tried to analyze the situation

"How severe is it, how did you find out?" Zane asked, he was already in the car, and pulling out of his driveway. It was a good thing that it was almost midnight, because Zane was not looking as he pulled out.

"Xander had a checkup today, and the doctor noticed a… thing… on his tonsils, and they wanted to get a scan on it, and it turned out it was one of the symptoms of the disease… the doctor said he found it early, and Xander will probably be okay…" Alexis said, with disbelief in her voice.

Zane exhaled, probably? Probably was not good enough! He could "probably" beat Jaden in a duel. He could "Probably" retire by the time he was thirty, and he could "probably" win the championship next year. Probably was not a definite thing.

They were both silent.

"Where is Xander?" Zane asked. Xander was clearly in the hospital, but he needed to know just _where _his first son was.

"I-i-in, the… he's in a room where he's under s–s-supervision… on the sixth floor, I'm not allowed to be in there until the morning" Alexis said, it was becoming more and more difficult to understand her through the heaving sobs.

This didn't click right in Zane's mind. First of all, a minor's parents were allowed in the room at all times, unless the patient is undergoing surgery, or something of that general matter. Second of all, Alexis's father worked in the hospital, ergo, wouldn't she get special privileges?

"Alexis, you're his mother, you're legally allowed to be in there" Zane said.

"n-no… I'm, they won't, Zane, I just…cant…" Alexis said in barley a whisper.

Zane cursed as he hit a red light. It was late, and there were hardly any people on the dark streets. Zane found this calming normally, he liked to think of them as "reverse haunted" or, as there are less and less people, there seemed to be more life. But now, he was just pissed off.

"Lexi… Relax, I'll be there soon" Zane said softly.

Alexis sniffed into the phone.

"You better be" she said in a deadly tone.

Zane rushed into the hospital at about 12:30. The waiting room had a few people in it, with the occasional teenager being rushed in to get their stomach pumped.

But No Alexis.

Zane noticed the stares, and wished he looked a bit more inconspicuous.

He walked to the receptionist's desk, his steps quiet on the cheap linoleum floor.

"I'm looking for Xander Kirin Truesdale" Zane said to the woman.

She didn't look up from the magazine she was reading.

"You and every other tabloid reporter in this city, unfortunately for you, I'm not obliged to give you that information" She said.

Zane was silent, Those damn tabloid reporters! How could they have known before he did? What kind of father did that make him? He wasn't there; he was never there, for anything! He **was **too young to be a father. Or to obsessed with his career to be a father. Or… to SOMETHING. This wasn't right, what wasn't he doing right!?

Seven years from then, Zane imagined Xander bringing home one of those essays from school, about his hero. Kids always wrote about their parents at that age. Zane probably wouldn't even be home! But he'd get home from a duel, late at night… and seeing it posted on the fridge. Of course, it would be an A+, between his and Alexis's brains he was bound to be smart. He was talking already! Unless of course, he got the gene that gave Atticus his brains. Zane shook his head; Xander was going to be smart, no doubt.

_What was I thinking about? _Zane thought.

_OH MY GOODNESS, XANDER! _

Zane cleared his throat.

"Yes?" The receptionist didn't look up.

"I'm here to see my son, and if you do not comply with me, I will have you fired" Zane said in a monotone.

The receptionist looked up and gasped.

"I am SO sorry Mr. Truesdale!" Her eyes were set in shock.

_Where is my fucking baby you moron?_ Zane thought.

"Xander Kirin, he's in room 614, but you can't see him right now… if you'd come back at six AM, I'm really sorry, he's under supervision…" she said.

Zane's mobile buzzed.

"Z-Zane… are you here yet?" Alexis said her voice more steady.

"Yes, where are you?" Zane asked, not letting his emotions show in this room full of people.

"Doctors lounge… it's on the first floor" She said.

Zane hung up and made his way down the hallway. He had a general idea of where this room was… he had waited in there for visiting hours to start after Xander was born.

Zane walked into the room, and was startled at what he saw.

He wanted to gouge his eyes out, he wanted to scream. He wanted to tear that cocky little prick limb from limb.

Zane cleared his throat.

"Zane!" Alexis shot up and ran to him, practically glomping him at the speed she hugged him.

"Truesdale" A man was sitting across the room, his suit looking slightly disheveled, his hair a mess, his silver eyes slightly red.

"Phoenix" Zane said with bitterness in his voice.

"Alexis, can you leave for a minuet, I need to talk to him, alone, thank you" Edo said, his voice low and creepy.

Alexis nodded and went out into the hall.

"You Asshole" Edo spat, as if he was speaking to dirt.

Zane stood there, slightly shocked. He and Edo hated one another, plain and simple, but it was a SILENT hatred.

"I am going to fucking kill you" Edo said.

He was most definitely not a kid anymore. At nineteen (and a half) he was a good six feet tall, and his baby face had thinned out and matured. His voice had finally dropped, and his maturity skyrocketed.

Zane stared.

"Innocent until proven guilty" Zane muttered.

"You think this is just some kind of joke, don't you?" Edo said.

Zane stared at the silver haired duelist.

"I threw my ENTIRE career out the window, thanks to you" Edo began pacing around the room.

"**What** did I do" Zane said, he hated being yelled at, but he honestly had no idea what was going on.

"I'm fucking married you asshole! MARRIED!" Edo yelled, on married, he punched a vending machine, sending a small package of pocky down into the bottom.

Zane was in shock, what the hell did Edo getting married have to do with him.

"Idiot, I got drunk, with a girl, in a city, with all night wedding chapels. YOU ASSHOLE!" Edo threw a magazine off the desk at Zane's head. Zane caught it easily.

"Edo, stop being a baby about this, just get a divorce," Zane said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh sure, it's that easy. FIRST OF ALL, I can't get divorced unless she wants to, second of all, she doesn't want to, Third of all, SHE'S FUCKING SETO KAIBA'S SISTER IN LAW'S SISTER!!!! HE FUCKING KICKED ME OUT OF THE PRO LEUGES AND DROPPED ALL OF MY ACCOUNTS!" Edo screamed, there were tears streaming down his face.

Zane could not place that emotion. It was a mixture of hatred, anger, and… jealousy? Whatever it was, Zane felt an emotion that seldom hit his body, pure guilt.

Zane bowed his head down. Did his punishment fit his crime? Sure, he had never actually meant for Edo to get _married, _his intentions were more _embarrass the poor asshole. _

"And how is this my fault?" Zane said, he wanted to see what Edo was thinking.

Edo paused on his rant.

"It just is!" he answered, just like the little boy he was at heart.

_Oh, how fitting. .. _

"Edo, this is not my fault… just relax," Zane said.

"I, I need your…" Edo mumbled the last word.

_Yes, beg you prick, BEG ME TO HELP YOU! _

"I need your help…" He mumbled quietly.

"I apologize, it would seem you damaged my hearing with you unnecessary yelling" Zane smirked, his humorous side did not come out very often, but he loved when it did.

"I NEED YOUR FREAKING HELP! HAPPY!?" Edo yelled.

This, in a word, rocked.

He couldn't believe that THE Edo Phoenix was having a breakdown, and he was psyched to watch it.

Wow, Zane really could be an ass when he wanted to be.

"What do you need?" Zane asked.

"You clearly know how to make a relationship work… and Kaiba respects you" Edo started.

Zane nodded, so it was true. Oh, it was sweet to watch Edo have that breakdown.

"I, I really like Karin… but, its, I don't want to be…" Edo trailed off, not sure of what he was going to say.

Zane looked into Edo's eyes. He was frightened, and desperate.

"You don't think your ready to be married, is that it?" Zane said.

Edo nodded,

"What I suggest, and I'd recommend asking someone else about this, is tell her that you want to date her, but your not sure your ready to be married" Zane said.

"She refuses to get a divorce" Edo said. He had taken the pocky out of the vending machine, and was sitting on the couch, eating it.

"Treat her like a girlfriend, not your wife" Zane said.

_Who knew I was good at this sort of thing? _

Edo smiled.

"You're not that bad, thank you, Zane, I really do respect you" Edo said.

Zane didn't smile, but he had a smile in his eyes.

"It's no problem," He said.

Zane could finally understand Edo's actions, and that, he was only a human.

Alexis walked back into the room.

"Cute, you two are friends now, but do you not realize that XANDER IS REALLY SICK!?" Alexis screamed.

Zane walked over to Alexis.

"He will be fine, don't worry" He whispered.

Edo rolled his eyes.

-Later that morning.

Zane was tired, really, really tired. He and Alexis had spent the night at a cheap motel outside of the hospital, and had not gotten much sleep thanks to the sirens of ambulances outside the window.

It was six AM, Zane had his cell on vibrate, and was pacing in the waiting room, Alexis sitting in a chair.

There were dark bags under their eyes, and they were still in their clothes from the day before.

"Truesdale, Rhodes?" The receptionist called.

Zane stood up and walked over to the desk.

"Its room 614, you can go in, a doctor will talk to you" She smiled at him.

Zane walked over to the hard plastic chairs and shook Alexis's shoulder.

He tilted his head, as to say

_Lets go_.

In the elevator, Alexis began to well up with tears, she wasn't crying yet, but she was close.

Zane opened the door, there was a hospital bed, a crib placed by the wall, a counter, and some chairs.

The doctor was standing over Xander.

Alexis rushed over to the baby, who was sleeping peacefully.

"Mrs. Truesdale?" The doctor asked.

"No, not yet" She mumbled.

"How is he" Zane asked from the door.

"Sleeping, we caught the disease early, which is good, I just need to ask you a few questions" The doctor said.

Alexis kept looking at the crib.

"First off, does he often ride in taxi cabs?"

Alexis nodded.

"But we have a car now" She whispered.

"Oh, good. Well, does he sleep through the night usually?"

"On most nights" Zane answered, taking a look at Xander, and then glaring at the doctor.

"Does he speak yet?"

"A few words" Alexis smiled at the baby.

"Does he eat adult food yet?"

"No, he's just started growing teeth" Zane said.

The doctor looked at his clipboard. Zane was taller and tried to get a glimpse of it, but he really couldn't see it very well.

The doctor cleared his throat.

"Well, I recommend going to the ENT at least once every other week for the next two months, to make sure he's okay. Other than that, he seems healthy; just give him this antibiotic every day after he eats breakfast. And, speaking this early in a baby can be a sign of autism, but he doesn't seem to show any other symptoms, so he's probably just a very mature baby" The doctor said.

He handed Zane a bottle of medicine, and left the room.

Alexis sighed, and then the tears began to flow.

"Are you okay?" Zane asked awkwardly.

"I-I'm so happy, he… he's okay! It's great!" She grinned.

_You're not the only one. _

* * *

Fei: well, this is the last chapter for a while; I'm loaded with homework… but the epilogue is already written, but I don't want this story to be over quite yet.

And then I finally decided on which plot bunny is becoming a full story.

Ever Heard Of The Novel Elsewhere? Its somewhat like one of Mitch Albom's books, but for teens.

Its about a dead girl and the after life.

Anyone have an Idea where I'm going?

Yup, Ryo stars in

"ELSEWHERE" (GX style)

I've done the first chapter already, and its pretty good!

10join

Fei!

(Or Youthful Fairy Princess, whichever you prefer)


	14. A Loophole, Legal Issue, and Laughter

Kaisre, Happy Birthday, your prezzie is inserted.

Anyway, for the next two weeks it's the Jewish holidays, so I really won't be able to update! (its new years this week, and the most important holiday of the year next week, my sisters back from college and I have to go to temple, so I really don't have time to write)

* * *

Xander had blue hair. It was a very noteworthy thing. The odd thing was that it wasn't quite Teal, it was more of a purpleish blue. But anyway, it wasn't the only odd thing. His eyes were practically white, they were a glassy shade of his mothers gold. The comment the doctor had made about autism had freaked out both parents, but there was something else that was looming on their minds.

The finals were only a week away. And then they were FREE for almost three months! There was the whole, engagement, thing that they had to worry about, and really, the entire idea of a wedding was not even penetrating the Kaisers head. He was just not really all too worried about it.

Anyway, the main issue was that Alexis **did** seem to know that the finals were coming up, but she was rarely home. She was almost constantly with Edo, helping him with his crumbling not quite a marriage. Zane was a lot more nervous about the fact that he thought that little Edo might be developing a _crush_ on his girlfriend, no wait, fiancé. He was aware that Alexis had had a crush on Edo during her second year, something that Atticus loved to tell Zane, constantly. But she was his fiancée, which mean that he was a step closer to being, (gasp) married to her,

One step closer having a RIGHT to tell certain people to stuff their affections up where the sun doesn't shine.

Oh yeah, Zane could be a sadist when he felt like it. An evil sadist. A big evil sadist. Okay, a hot big evil sadist.

BUT ANYWAY!

There seemed to be some issues in the dueling league, mainly when the list of the next season's duelists were released to the public, with Edo Phoenix absent. Fans went rabid.

Anyway, Seto Kaiba was going to need to make a decision, to screw the fans, because he would still make money, or let go of his grudge on Edo and let him back into the league, and not loose a ton of creditability when the reason was leaked to the public.

And that seemed to be the nature of the meeting that all the next season's duelists were called to. It had just begun, and they could already hear the chants from Edo's fans outside the building. Which was odd, because the room was supposed to be soundproof.

Zane and Alexis were sitting in the back of the room; Xander was with Atticus for the day.

Seto Kaiba, the head of the league, was standing on a stage in the front of the room.

"Good Job to all duelists that participated this season, Zane Truesdale and Jaden Yuki, good luck to both of you on Friday. I called you all here today to address a certain issue that is regarding next season's line up." He started.

Zane was leaning back in his chair, attempting to keep his eyes, he didn't want to look disrespectful to his idol, but he already knew what was going on.

Jaden and Johan were sitting next to them, with new additions Blair and Hasselberry next to them. Chazz was apparently absent, or maybe he just was still moping about the fact that the love of his life being engaged.

"Many of you have probably noticed that Edo Phoenix's fans are rioting because he is not dueling next season. This is going to cause some financial declines next season, as his fans are saying that they will boycott the league, and Kaiba corp. products unless we let him duel, which we all know, will affect your salaries" Kaiba said.

A few of the duelists with more lavish lifestyles gasped. But most duelists, like Zane and his friends, lived middle class lives, not blowing every bit of money that they make. Usually because they were aware that a duelist rarely participates once they hit thirty. In the case of Chazz, or Johan it turned out, there was family money involved, and they hardly touched the money they made themselves. Also because to really make a good living, you need to endorse several products, and do small tournaments almost constantly.

According to Alexis, Jaden was rolling in money because of all the tournaments he entered. Zane doubted that he even realized that he had a lot of money, this was Jaden after all.

He had never been to his apartment, but according to his brother and Alexis, it wasn't really all that nice, or big.

Then again, this was coming from the only kid in the history of duel academy who EVER stayed in red all three years out of choice.

Anyway, back to the meeting…

"This is why I've called this meeting, to address certain new rules that can get people kicked out of the league"

A screen behind them listed the new rules as they were revealed.

"As stated before, any duelist caught doing drugs will be permanently expelled, no arguments. Any duelist caught cheating will be kicked out. Any duelist caught spreading false, yet believable rumors about other duelists will be suspended until the scandal is resolved, and then they will start in a low ranking when they return no matter what there ranking before." He said.

"Same rules as last year, what's the big deal" Zane asked.

"New rules are as follows:

Any duelist, who tarnishes the name of the Pro Leagues, or the Kaiba family, will be suspended until further notice."

"What?" Jaden asked, with a look of complete confusion on his face.

"Anyone who interrupts Kaiba's ego trip is suspended until he says so" Johan explained.

Everyone but Jaden and Zane cracked up.

"Anything interesting going on back there?" Kaiba raised an eyebrow to the group sitting in the back row.

"Just Jaden's general stupidity" Johan offered.

Making any duelist who knew Jaden personally crack up. Which due to the extroversion of a certain duelist was more than half the room.

"MOVING ON!" Kaiba said, getting the room of duelists to quiet down.

"Anyone who is legally related to the Kaiba family is not permitted to duel, due to the fairness to other duelists, unless the other duelist vote said duelist back in" Kaiba said.

_I get it, new rules to make up for Edo's absence, and to explain his expulsion, being in an accidental marriage, being legally related to Kaiba and his family... _

"Which, to any one who doesn't understand, is just like how in a radio contest anyone related to people who work at the station are not permitted to enter, it's to prevent information that might be leaked to a duelist that should not be leaked being leaked. It's a legal problem" Kaiba explained, looking straight to Jaden.

"Say leaked one more time" Alexis mumbled.

_Which is how he's expelling Edo, on a legal technicality. _

"Oh! I get it! Thanks dude!" Jaden grinned.

Which caused everyone to crack up again.

"And finally, anyone who endorses any product that is made by Kaiba Corps competition that Kaiba corp. also makes, must get written permission from Kaiba corp., or have a three duel suspension at the least" Kaiba explained.

Several other duelists shouted their complaints at this new rule, but it did make sense.

It was to compensate for the money that Kaiba corp. would loose if Edo's fans boycotted him.

"In other news, pre season starts on June ninth, while the main season starts on the fist of July. We are also asking your publicists to send us a list of any events that are of interest of us in the off season. Your deck lists need to be sent to us weekly starting on the twentieth of May. The rankings for next season will start being listed in the third week of pre season. Any duelist going abroad next season, stay after this meeting, along with Yuki and Truesdale, to discuss Friday" Kaiba said.

"There will be another meeting of this nature in ONE WEEK, or for those of you who don't understand, next Sunday at nine, in this room, you're dismissed"

The second the words left his mouth, everyone began speaking at once.

Fifty or so duelists were present, and they were loud.

"Let's go out to lunch!" Jaden said.

"Jaden, you need to stay here, remember?" Johan said.

"Okay, you all go get a table, then text me where you are" Jaden smiled at the thought of food.

"Sounds good" Blair smiled.

"Good idea private" Hasselberry said.

"See you Jay" Johan said, giving him a hug.

Zane had to hold in his need to retch, they were just so… cute! It was disgusting! The cute couple thing made him feel stupid, how could two people who were in such an awkward situation be so open to their relationship in public. Alexis and Himself hardly looked at each other in public, though, in private they could be as disgustingly cute as they wanted.

Ten or so duelists were sitting in the front of the room, next to the stage.

"Yuki, Truesdale, your presence is needed" a man in a dark suit and sunglasses yelled to the back of the room.

Zane nodded and walked to the front of the room. Jaden on the other hand jumped over chairs to get there in five seconds flat. Alexis and Johan were standing in the back, waiting for their loved ones.

"So you all need to make sure that you have accommodations in your respective countries, and that's all you need to know, good luck" Kaiba said to the duelists in the front of the room.

The duelists exited the room leaving Jaden and Zane standing in the front of the room.

"The match on Friday is sold out, and the bets are split 50/50, so I expect both of you to put on a good show. And by the way, you two are tabloid magnets, so keep you love lives out of the tabloids, this season has had far to many scandals, and I cant afford to loose my two best duelists due to a bad rumor, now can I? Just remember that during the off season" Kaiba said, with a deadly glare.

Zane kept his face straight, but could sense how uncomfortable Jaden was.

"And by the way, I've seen the ring, congratulations" Kaiba said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

Alexis turned bright red and checked her hand, then shoved it in her jacket pocket.

"NO WAY!" Johan yelled, grabbing Alexis's hand out of her pocket

"Huh?" Jaden asked, staring quixotically at Kaiser.

Who turned his head to find that Kaiba was long gone.

"It's nothing" Zane muttered, turning his head to Johan holding the ring above his head while Alexis jumped to get it.

Johan dropped the ring when his phone buzzed.

"They have a table, lets go" Johan said, smiling.

_Why do I have a feeling that this is going to end badly?_

They were walking down the street, Alexis was standing next to Zane, wearing his scarf because she forgot her own. He would never do something as disgusting as share a scarf, NEVER.

Johan was walking a bit in front of them, chatting on his phone in German, apparently to his mother,

"ja Mutter, bin ich das Fliegen, das in zwei Wochen Haupt ist. Ja hole ich Jaden, Sie liebe ihn! Wir können nicht gehen diese Woche, weil er in den Endrunden ist. Kein weiß ich nicht, wem gewinnen wird. Ja vermisse ich Sie auch, ich spreche mit Ihnen später. Tschuess "

("Yes Mother, I'm flying home in two weeks. Yes, I am bringing Jaden, You'll love him! We can not go this week because he is in the finals. No I do not know who is going to win. Yes, I miss you too; I'll talk to you later. Bye")

Jaden was walking in front of the three of them, walking backwards, asking questions.

"A Fiancé, didn't your friends say I was yours in our first year?" Jaden asked.

Alexis sent Jaden a look of horror.

"They did?"

"Yeah, remember that day during tennis when I dueled that guy, and you said that fiancé meant friends for now. Are you sure you don't remember that?" Jaden said, ignoring the slashing motions Alexis was making under her chin when she remembered that day.

Alexis was bright red.

"wirklich? Freunde für jetzt? Ich war immer unter dem Eindruck, daß fiancé bedeutete, daß Sie engagiert wurden verbunden zu werden... "

Johan said with a smirk.

"Johan, you're still speaking in German" Jaden said, poking him in the side.

"Sorry, I said that I thought that Fiancé meant that you were engaged to be married" Johan said.

Alexis turned red.

"erhalten Sie ' EM, während dort gerade, wie?" Johan smirked while waggling his eyebrows suggestively

(Get 'em while there straight, Eh?)

"Johan, I get that your bilingual, and that's great and all, but PLEASE speak in Japanese," Alexis said.

Johan shook his head.

"He said something obnoxious, whatever it was" Zane said.

"Gut denkt Jaden, daß Deutscher reizvoll, also Abkommen mit ihm ist! Und sein Spaß, zum zu sagen, was ich zu wünsche" Johan smirked.

(Well, Jaden thinks German is sexy, so deal with it! And its fun to say what I want to)

Jaden laughed.

"Dude, I have no idea what you're saying, but its pretty sex-" Johan clamped his hand over Jadens mouth.

Zane raised his eyebrows.

"It's pretty what?" He asked with a smirk of his own.

"Shut up" Johan said his blush as deep as Alexis had been.

Everyone else began laughing.

"The restaurants here" Johan said, pointing to a small ramen place.

"SWEET! I'm starving! I haven't eaten in almost two hours" Jaden said, rushing inside.

-Later.

The empty restaurant had just two tables being used.

One had Zane, Alexis, Jaden, Johan, Hasselberry, and Blair.

"Were the couple of third wheels" Blair said with a blush.

Hasselberry seemed to blush as well, but he just mouthed

"She looks like Alice"

Anyway, it was the other table that was most unusual. It was a group of about five girls, one with a tiara in her teal streaked hair. The girls were hyper and loud, and seemed to be having so much fun that they didn't realize the celebrities in their midst.

The duelists were talking about Edo; Alexis had revealed to them what had happened, including a brief summary of his breakdown in the hospital. Jaden seemed the most shocked, while everyone else had suspected it, but were shocked none the less.

The other table was singing happy birthday to the girl with the tiara. They were singing loud and out of tune, but laughing as the birthday girl struggled to blow out the 13 candles on the cake.

"What did you wish for Ari?" One asked.

Ari turned bright red.

"I Know what she wished for" One said with a mischievous grin.

"Ari Wished for ZANE TRUESDALE" she shouted.

The girls went into a fit of hysterics.

"HEY! That's not fair, I didn't wish for him" Ari said.

"Then why are you blushing?" the loud one asked.

The girls went into another fit of hysterics.

"Someone likes men who are involved; I hear that he's engaged"

Everyone at that table was laughing.

Everyone at Zane's table was laughing as well.

"You should say hi to her" Johan said through fits of hysterics.

Zane glared at him.

"You should, that would be so sweet, its her birthday" Alexis offered.

"Yeah! Go" Jaden said.

"You're coming with me" Zane said, rolling his eyes, and grabbling Alexis wrist.

The girls at the table didn't realize the man approaching, until one of them gasped.

"HOLY SHIT!" she yelled, getting the attention of the other girls.

Ari turned extremely red, he was hotter in person!

"Happy Birthday" Zane said with a straight face, he tried not to laugh, she looked so funny.

"Y-Y-Y-Your…" She was speechless.

Zane leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

"Zane Truesdale, I know," Zane said, walking out of the restaurant.

"I can't believe you did that!" Alexis said, laughing once they were at the parking garage about a block away.

"It was funny"

"One of the girls got it on tape, by the way" Alexis said smiling.

Zane's good mood vanished, his mouth was hanging open.

"How did you know that?" Zane said.

"I signaled her too," Alexis laughed.

Her phone buzzed, she got a text.

"According to Johan, that girl fainted," She laughed again.

_I cannot believe I did that. _

* * *

Happy Birthday Kaisre, I hoped you liked your present.

10join

Fei!


	15. A phyco,photoshoot, and playing a game

Happy Belated Birthday Dragon!

Note: If you have a birthday coming up, tell me! I love to write people presents!

We were talking about the 100 most influential people in social studies, and none of us could guess number one, and my teacher began writing it out one letter at a time on the board, when It looked like this

J O H A,

I shouted out "JOAHN ANDERSON!". That got some laughs from my class, especially those who actually know who he is… (fyi, it was Johann Guttenburg)

WARNING! THIS CHAPTER IS 20 PAGES LONG!

Early morning, really, really, early morning.

Insanely early in Zane's book.

It was the morning of the finals. Which clearly meant that Zane had to wake up at 5 in the morning. and if that wasn't bad enough, go for a PHOTO SHOOT and an interview at some dumb dueling magazine. Okay, it wasn't dumb, actually, duelists weekly was the number one selling magazine in Japan. And of course, whoever won the finals would graze the cover, as well as have a four page spread. And money, a fifty thousand dollar cash prize was NOT something to sneeze about. And then, best of all, whoever won the finals started with the number one ranking, and didn't have to duel in the pre season. Which, for most people, meant an extra month of vacation. But Zane was aware that Alexis was dueling in the pre season, so it really wasn't going to affect him all that much.

The alarm clock was going off, loud. It a specific pattern of three beeps in a crescendo then a rest, just invented to annoy people.

"Zane, you need to get up" Alexis groaned, burying her head under a pillow.

Zane hadn't woken up yet. He constantly had to change what was waking him up, or he just slept through it. He wanted a radio alarm clock, but couldn't stand waking up to someone talking. So it was just an annoying beeping alarm for him.

She kicked him in the shin, trying to get him into the world of the living.

"Zane! Get up!" Alexis said, kicking him again, she wanted him to wake up that instant, because, once he was up, she didn't have to be.

Xander started to wail, down the hall.

"Zane, get up!" Alexis said, pulling the covers off of him.

It was the same thing every morning. Zane didn't sleep very much, to many things going on in his head, but when he did sleep, it was deeply, and it required a lot of disturbance to get him up.

Which is why school massively sucked when Atticus and himself were given separate rooms in his third year, it was much easier to wake up to Atticus's singing in the morning. Because then he could just smack him, and be wide awake.

But Atticus's little sister had a lot more trouble waking the Kaiser up.

Xander was still crying and screaming.

"Zane, he's going to wake the neighbors" Alexis said, shaking him.

"Then deal with him" Zane mumbled

"Nope, I don't have to be up for another few hours, you have to be at your publicists in an hour, and then you have an interview," and with that, Alexis buried her head under a pillow and proceeded to kick Zane until he got out of bed.

Zane hit the off button on the alarm and looked out the window. It was pitch black outside.

_Just great_ he thought.

He went into Xander's room, and turned on the lamp by the door.

"Xander, go back to sleep" Zane said, to the baby who was screaming in his crib.

Xander paused in his scream, and then proceeded to cry.

"Xander, there's this thing called sleep, I'd be glad to be experiencing it now, be greatfull that you don't have to work." Zane said, rubbing his eyes.

"CARD!" Xander yelled.

"Sleep, Xander Kirin, its time to sleep" Zane said, leaning over the crib.

"DUEL!" Xander yelled.

"No, sleep" Zane said, lifting him up out of the crib.

Xander stopped screaming.

"Good, now sleep" Zane said, placing him gently in the crib, and then pulling the small blanket over his tiny body.

Xander was already sleeping.

_How do babies fall asleep so quickly? _He thought in amazement.

Zane walked into the kitchen and started making coffee, he had a photo shoot, which sucked massively. SUCKED! But along with the photo shoot was an interview (Actually, half of an interview, he would have to answer some questions on the finals after they happened, probably over the phone) and the last thing he wanted was to look dumb. And without the proper amount of caffeine, it was very possible say the wrong thing.

The only good thing was that, even if he won, he wouldn't have to go to the after party. Thanks to Xander, and his infant recommended bedtime. It wasn't like he particularly cared about going, they would announce rookie of the year (yeah, like people totally couldn't guess the rookie who was in the finals would win that one) and then the big bosses would schmooze a bit. So generally it was pretty boring and dumb.

Anyway, he still needed to shower, get dressed, and eat, before he could leave the house.

And he had to do it all quietly because he didn't want to wake anyone else.

As the steam rushed out of the shower, he sighed. His hair was still very short, and he really was not happy about it. He didn't look like himself. It was strange how a few inches made such a huge difference.

He brushed his teeth, spat, and bared his teeth in the mirror. Straight and white. He looked at his face, not particularly bad considering how little sleep he had gotten. It wasn't that he cared so much about how he looked, though he liked to look presentable, it was more the better looking he was, the less (gasp) makeup he would have to wear in the upcoming photo shoot.

He toweled off, and got dressed in a suit. He then went into the kitchen and ate a small breakfast. He gulped down two cups of black coffee, and grabbed his briefcase and his keys off of the counter. Then he clicked a switch, and the kitchen went just as dark as the outside.

He went into the hallway; there he put on his shoes. Then went on his jacket and his scarf, and his shoes last. It had stopped snowing constantly about two weeks before, but it was still cold, it being late February.

He walked out onto the driveway, locking the door to his house as he went.

He got into the car and turned the radio onto the news.

Nothing that really interested him.

Thanks to the early hour, the traffic wasn't very bad, but it was still a long drive to the magazines headquarters.

His cell phone rang at about six AM.

He hit speaker.

"Yes?" he asked.

"It's your publicist, anyway, about the interview, I let the bomb drop that the two of you are engaged, and they are going to ask you some questions about that. Anyway, you need to be at the arena at seven, and, on the request of the grandmaster, please don't make the match last only three turns, because it costs a ton of money to get a commercial on TV during the finals. You get me? Good, See you soon Truesdale" she hung up.

Zane clicked the end button, and scowled, he HATED his publicist. But trying to extend the match? He had seen duelists do that more times then one, and usually they lost because of it. You need to win when you see an opening to, not after a certain amount of time. After all, this was Jaden, the only way to win with him was to beat him before he got his stronger monsters in the graveyard, and used a creative fusion.

Zane pulled up to the building at about six twenty. It was a glass fronted building, and it was about five stories tall, and it wasn't very wide.

Zane parked his car, and went inside, his face red from the cold.

He walked up to the receptionist's desk.

"Mr. Truesdale, here's your pass, go into the elevator and take it to the fourth floor, have a fun interview" She said with a 100 watt smile.

_Yes, because interviews are SO fun. _He thought sarcastically.

He walked into the room to find them already setting up, in front of a green screen.

_Great, I don't even know where there placing me _he thought.

"Mr. Truesdale! So great to meet you, I'm Palo, I'm this shoots director" A small, well dressed man walked up to him and pumped his hand.

Zane stayed silent.

"Yes, well, get into wardrobe and makeup, our interviewer will ask you questions while your getting ready" Palo shoved him towards another room.

He was annoyed to see that Jaden wasn't there, meaning he had gotten the earlier call time. Not that he expected anyone to be on call at four AM, but he was pissed none the less.

He tried to keep his face straight, and walked into the room as slowly as possible.

"Hi Zane! I'm W. L. and I'll be your make up artist, so sit down and let me see what I'm working with!" W.L. ushered him into a makeup chair and looked in the mirror.

"You have very good skin! That's good, less make up for you, don't worry, we just have enough so your features pop on camera, oh, but those bags under your eyes, you should get at least eight hours of sleep a day, Zane, don't make me lecture you on healthy living," W.L. began to get brushes ready, and dipped them in a lot of different colors.

Zane visibly winced.

"Don't worry, its not that bad"

_Its make up, I'm a guy, yes, in fact, it is that bad. _

Another woman rushed into the room.

"Ugh, such an early call time, someone is going to DIE! I swear, next time I get called in this early, I'm going to strangle a baby! Honestly, I don't know how you deal with this!" The woman looked just like W.L. except she had a noticeably crazier and more violent disposition.

"This is my sister Dragon, excuse her insanity, she's your hair designer" W.L. whispered.

"Insanity, I'll show you insanity!" Dragon said, throwing a bottle of hair gel at her sister.

"DRAGON! Don't make me get the muzzle out!" W.L. said, tossing the bottle back to her sister.

Dragon sneered, and began pulling at Zane's hair.

"Blue? What type of punk freak are you!?" She asked.

Zane kept his face straight. This woman was CRAZY!

"It's natural" Zane said.

"Nobody has naturally blue hair!" Dragon sneered, and began combing out the tangles with more force then necessary.

_This woman is going to make me bald! _

"His son has blue hair Dragon" W.L. said calmly.

"That stinking illegitimate child? The mother probably dyes it to make it seem like it's his son, and it's really someone else's, she just wants to be associated with a famous duelist" Dragon said, pulling out more tangles in his short hair.

W.L. looked appalled.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Truesdale! Our regular hair designer got sick, and we needed to call her in, she was demoted because of her bad behavior, I'm really sorry!" W.L. said, beginning to put some gross gunk (foundation) on Zane's face.

"BAD BEHAVIOR!? If people were normal, I'd be normal, easy as that" Dragon said. She then began gelling Zane's hair.

"Just putting gel in it to make it stay still in the pictures, nothing fancy. Not that I could do something with your hair like this" Dragon said, pulling his hair hard to place it.

"Oh, you have such nice eyes and the exact same color as your hair too! I totally wish you were a girl, and then I could use colored eye shadow and glitter to make them pop" W.L. said, stabbing him with an eyeliner pencil.

"ow" Zane said, turning his head as W.L. tried to put more eyeliner on his eyes.

"I'm sorry, but it's necessary" she reassured him.

_Kill me now, could this get any worse? _

A man walked into the room.

"Hello Mr. Truesdale, I'm your interviewer, how are you today?" he asked, smiling insincerely.

_I spoke too soon. _

Zane nodded.

"Zane, keep your head straight!" W.L. and Dragon yelled.

"Okay, first question, how did you get started dueling?"

Zane sighed.

"I grew up watching dueling, so I made my first deck when I was five and began dueling the boys in my elementary school" Zane answered.

"I see, and why and when did you decide to start using your current deck, because I've heard that you used the same deck since middle school"

"I was given the cyber dragon cards by the master at my junior high, and I started getting cards to compliment them. I used them because I felt a connection with them" Zane answered.

"I see, why did you decide to go to Duel Academy?" The reporter asked.

"Because it was the most prestigious dueling academy around, and my teachers all recommended me to go there" Zane answered.

"What was your most memorable moment at the academy?"

Zane thought, what to choose?

"In my final year, I graduated first in my class, and I got to be in the graduation match and choose my opponent, it was also the first duel I ever officially didn't win" Zane answered.

"So you lost? Who was the duelist that you dueled against?" he seemed shocked.

"Actually, it was a tie, and it was against Jaden Yuki," Zane answered.

Dragon dropped the bottle of hair gel all over the floor.

"NO WAY! You lost to a FRESHMAN!? HA! HA! I guess you're not as good as we all think you are!" Dragon laughed.

W.L. Looked mortified.

"Are you done?" She asked her sister.

Dragon wiped her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever hope your hair looks good, because honestly, it's a disgusting mess of split ends" Dragon packed up her stuff and left the room.

"Okay… moving on, I've heard that you and Edo Phoenix seem to have a rivalry going on, and I heard it gets hostile even out of duels, would you care to explain the circumstances?"

Zane chose his words carefully.

"Edo Phoenix and I have been rivals since my first year in the pros, we both find each other great opponents, we don't always get along, but we don't get into fights like the tabloids seem to think we do" Zane said, happy with his answer.

"And do you know why he is not dueling next season?"

"Yes I do, he and my girlfriend are good friends" Zane said calmly.

"And just why isn't he dueling?"

"I can't really tell you, it's not my place" Zane scowled as the makeup artist tried to put lipstick on him.

"Its pale, it's just to make your features pop" she said.

Zane pressed his thumb nail into his index finger, trying to keep him from rolling his eyes.

"You said girlfriend, I've heard that the two of you are engaged"

Zane remembered that his publicist had told him that it was okay to say they were.

"We are," Zane said calmly.

"And when is the wedding?"

Zane almost laughed, he actually had no clue, and he was not really responsible for anything, just to show up.

"You're going to have to ask my mother" Zane said.

"I see, and since when have the two of you been engaged?"

"Christmas" Zane answered.

W.L. smiled at him, and spun him towards the mirror.

He looked exactly the same as before. She began to pack up her makeup tools.

"Really? So you two have been engaged for almost three months! Why did you two keep it a secret for so long?"

"I really didn't want to be bombarded by the press"

"And do you have any plans for the off season?"

"I'm sorry, we need to get him into wardrobe" Palo dragged him out of the chair and into a dressing room.

"I don't like this type of clothing" Zane said, staring at the two outfits in front of him. One was a jersey and jeans, and the other was cargo pants, and a long pink t-shirt.

"These are the clothes that are in style." He commented.

"I prefer suits" Zane said, staring at the awful clothes.

"Those are boring, suits are for old men" He said.

"And these clothes are for teens" Zane said, idly fingering the odd clothes.

"And how old are you? Twenty? You will wear these clothes"

"I'm twenty three, and I'll wear my own clothes thank you" Zane said.

"Zane, please, nobody wants to see you wear another suit, how about if we compromise?" Palo said from outside the dressing room.

Zane sighed.

"What"

"Wear the Jeans, and I'll get you a button down shirt"

Zane thought about it, jeans weren't awful, though not first his choice of clothing either.

"Fine" Zane said, pulling the jeans on.

He grimaced, they were tight.

Palo threw a grey shirt over the curtain.

Zane pulled it on and buttoned it. it was not anything he would chose to wear, but it wasn't as bad as the other things.

Zane walked out of the dressing room, and into the photo studio.

"No, no, no! Don't button that shirt all the way up to the second to top button, someone please show this boy how to dress." Palo was frantic.

_How to dress? I'm sorry if I want to look decent! _

A camera hand ran over and unbuttoned a few more buttons.

Zane felt his face turn slightly red, his chest was almost completely exposed, and he really didn't feel like himself. And the woman touching him was not helping.

Zane went to button up a few more buttons, but the woman swatted at his hands.

"You stand there and look hot, we'll show you how to dress and MAKE you look hot"

_Is everyone in this industry a psychopath?_

The photographer stood him in front of a green screen.

Zane wanted to die. The photographer was yelling out different emotions, Zane kept his face the same.

"STOP! Someone PLEASE explain that you can't stand there like a stone! This isn't a Christmas card, this is a photo shoot, and we need to have some variation! And you're not getting out of here until we get it!" He yelled.

Zane rolled his eyes. This sucked, massively. But at least they weren't asking him to smile.

-About fifteen minutes later.

"Zane, we promised our editor some shirtless pictures" The photographer said, looking the duelist straight in the eye.

"Your kidding" Zane said,

_Everyone here is crazy!_

"No I am not, Please take off your shirt or we will take it off for you" Palo said, walking over to the duelist.

"I will not pose shirtless, I'll leave" Zane said, seriously.

His publicist ran over.

"Zane, what are you doing!? This is a COVER SHOOT, so do what they tell you too" She whispered to him.

"No, I refuse to, I'm walking out if you insist on taking shirtless pictures" Zane whispered back.

His publicist sighed, and walked over to Palo.

She whispered something in his ear, which made Palo's eyes widen.

"No way" he mouthed.

"You know what? Its okay, we have enough pictures, thank you" He said, rushing out of the room.

Zane went back over to the dressing room and put his own, properly fitting clothes back on.

"What did you say to him anyway?" Zane asked while they were in the elevator.

"Just what was necessary Zane dear" She said.

Zane shot her the look.

"I told her that you didn't have a six pack, that's the clincher for whether a person poses shirtless or not, and I thought you were smart" She said, rolling her eye.

_A six pack? Of what? _

"I expect to see you at the arena at seven, and other then that, good job" She said, running out of the elevator.

_I need to be in the company of sane people. _

-Back at the house.

Zane used all of his self control to keep from falling asleep in the car, he was exhausted.

He walked into the house and pulled off his outerwear (no, that means coat, gloves, ect.)

He walked into the living room, to find Edo and Alexis sitting on the couch, thisclose to one another.

Zane cleared his throat.

The two of them looked up, and sprang apart.

"Hi Zane, how was the photo shoot?" Alexis asked, running her hand through her blond hair.

"I'd rather not talk about it" Zane said, going into the kitchen.

Edo looked somewhat nervous. Which made Zane very suspicious.

Zane washed his hands, and began rummaging through the fridge for something to eat.

"Zane? What happened?" Alexis asked. She walked into the kitchen and sat in one of the chairs.

"I said I don't want to talk about it" Zane said.

Which meant, _I don't want Edo to hear that I was self conscious. _

"Come on, you can tell me!" Alexis said, walking over to him, and lacing her arms around his neck.

"My quote unquote stylists were insane, though pretty amusing, they tried to get me into clothes that wouldn't even be appropriate on a teenager, and they wanted me to take my shirt off" Zane said, shaking her off.

"Tried to get you to take off your shirt? That's pretty weird. But other then that, it's not all that farfetched for a normal day in your life" Alexis said, sitting back at the table.

"What's Edo doing here?" Zane asked, pulling out some of the leftovers from the night before.

"Trying to get away from the insanity that is his so called marriage," Alexis explained.

"You two looked, cozy…" Zane said, emphasizing the cozy.

"Oh, don't be like that, he's my friend and nothing more, you're more then a friend" Alexis said.

Edo knocked on the wall, and walked into the room.

"Which photographer did you have?" He asked.

"Palo, or something of that nature" Zane said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, the pervert… I've had him my fair share of times, he's insane, but does good work" Edo commented.

Zane rolled his eyes, and placed his lunch into the microwave.

"What are you going to do next year if you don't duel?" Zane asked.

"Duel in the American league" Edo said, with a certain amount of distaste in his voice.

"I thought you need to have graduated high school to duel in the American league?" Zane asked.

"I got my GED when I was fourteen, and I have two PHD's, by the way" Edo said, with a hint of superiority.

"And yet you can't control yourself under the influence of alcohol" Zane added.

"Like your one to talk!" Edo said standing up and beating his palms on the table.

"Guys, cut it out!" Alexis said.

_He started it_ Zane thought.

"Wait, back to what we were talking about before, Karin said that she doesn't care if the two of you being married lost you your job because…" Alexis repeated what he had said before.

"Because, she says I have enough money, and she always wanted to live in America… she's truly an idiot" Edo commented.

"So she's less of a sweet little girl, and more of a bitch as time goes on?" Zane asked.

Edo nodded.

"Zane! Were you implying something!?" Alexis mock gasped.

"Of course, my new publicist was just the way Karin is" Zane smirked.

"So, have you appealed to the league yet?" Alexis asked

"Next weeks meeting, apparently there's a vote. And according to my lawyer, we need to get divorced within the next two months, or we'll be a legitimate couple" Edo said, with despair in his voice.

"Just be an asshole to her, you don't have to beat her or anything, but just be really inattentive, and don't give her money, stuff like that" Alexis said.

They spent the next hour discussing ways to get out of the marriage, and Zane was a bit scared how much Alexis knew about divorce.

Edo looked up at the clock.

"I need to go, I have a meeting with my agent, thanks for the help, and good luck" Edo said, he grabbed his things and left the house.

"you have to feel bad for him" Alexis said.

Zane nodded. He did pity his situation. What he wanted to know was why girls were so obsessed with him.

"Why do all the girls like him so much anyway?" Zane asked Alexis.

"He's charismatic, funny, cute, successful, smart, pretty nice to people,-"

"That's enough." Zane cut her off.

"Hey you asked, and besides, I like you much better" She said with a grin.

-later

Zane was sitting in the green room, nervous as hell. This was very well the most important duel of his career, and he couldn't sit still. His drummed his fingers on the cool metal of his duel disk, it calmed his nerves. He looked through his cards, making sure that he split up the good and bad ones so if he wouldn't get a bad starting hand.

He pulled on his hair, which still had some gel in it from before. He had taken three showers to try to get every last bit of styling product off his body, to no avail. Alexis had lent him some makeup remover, but couldn't stop laughing as she showed him how to use it.

_Breathe, this is Jaden, you'll be fine_. Zane thought. His stomach was in his throat, and he was really regretting eating so much before the duel. He paced over to the water cooler, and let the cool liquid run down his throat.

"Please go up to the arena" Someone said over the loudspeaker.

Zane breathed in and out, and then went up the stairs.

The noise that hit him once he opened the door was at sonic boom levels. Lights and flashes from cameras made him very uncomfortable; he was already starting to sweat.

Jaden was already standing on the platform, smiling and waving like the kid he was.

_How can he not be nervous? _Zane thought idly.

"Will both opponents shake hands?" the official commanded.

Zane went over to Jaden and they shook hands.

"Just like your senior year, right?" Jaden asked smiling.

"No, this time your going to duel like yourself, and I'm going to beat you on my first clear shot" Zane said with a half smile.

Jaden laughed.

"Beat ME? In your dreams Kaiser,"

They both laughed.

_It's just a game to Jaden, and its still fun no matter what happens. _

"DUEL!" They both shouted.

-Later (sorry, I can't write a duel out to save my life)

It was late, almost midnight, and they were still celebrating.

Zane, Alexis, Jaden, Johan, and for some reason Edo and Karin were all celebrating the end of a really great season. Xander was sleeping soundly in his room, despite the noise.

They were sitting in the living room (the biggest room in the house) eating cake, and drinking wine, and something that Edo had brought.

"To the end of a really screwed up season!" Jaden said, holding up his glass.

Everyone else repeated and held up their glasses.

Alexis wasn't drinking, on the grounds that she wasn't fond of the taste.

And it also turned out, that Karin was a really stupid drunk, though Edo assured everyone that she was like that all the time.

"Wait, so you're not doing anything over the off season?" Johan asked.

"No, we don't have anything planned, so how long are you going home for?" Alexis asked.

"A month, I have been gone nearly a year! So wait, Edo are you doing anything during the off season?" Johan asked.

"Meeting with my lawyer" Edo said, cocking his head to the stupidly drunk little girl sitting beside him.

"Aw silly, I don't want to get divorced! We can be together forever!" She squealed.

"I lost my job because of you" Edo said in a tone that rivaled Zane's death tone.

"So? You have like, six college degrees, it's not like you couldn't start doing anything else" She said, shoving him.

"I have two PHDs, and has it occurred to you that I don't WANT to do something else?" Edo asked.

"Can the two of you please stop, Karin, do you want me to call you a cab?" Alexis asked sweetly.

"That's so nice of you! I'd love to leave this shithole you call a house! I honestly don't get why you're marrying Zane, I mean, sure, current pro league champion, but for how long? And he clearly doesn't make that much money! You should have been smart, like my sister, marry into a good family, right?" She bumbled.

"Please get out," Alexis said sweetly.

"SURE!" She said, stumbling out into the cold, piss drunk.

Alexis sighed as she shut the door.

"Ugh, I HATE her!" Alexis groaned.

"Welcome to my world, well, better make sure she's not freezing herself to death, bye" Edo said, taking another swig of his drink, and then getting ready to leave.

"DUDE! I'm beyond ready to crash" Jaden said, doing the cheap yawn and put arm around date's shoulders bit.

"I guess that's my cue, bye guys, congratulations Zane, see you at the meeting on Monday" Johan said, collecting his things and leaving with Jaden.

Alexis lay back on the couch.

"I'm exhausted" She said, rolling her eyes.

"We need to clean up" Zane said.

"Look at you, current champion of the pro league, but still a totally neat freak!" Alexis smiled.

Zane began collecting cups and put them into the dishwasher.

Alexis scooped things into a garbage bag, and then carried the cake box to the kitchen.

Alexis put the cake box into the freezer, and then took the knife and began cleaning it.

The phone rang.

Alexis picked up the phone and put it on speaker.

"Hello?" Alexis asked.

"Hi, Alexis… it's your mother, um, honey… I have something to tell you" Her mother started.

"Yes mother?" Alexis asked, drying the knife.

"Well, we got a strange phone call just a while back"

"Yeah mom, what was it?" Alexis asked, putting the knife on the counter, her hands were shaking.

"Um, it was grandma's doctor, she's sick, and they think she isn't going to… live… to the end of the month" Her mother began to cry.

Alexis's head spun. _Not going to live? _She grabbed the counter for support, and breathed in and out of her nose.

"You there honey?" Mrs. Rhodes asked.

"Yeah, what's she sick with?" Alexis asked.

"Cancer, she had it when you were very little, and it came back. We think that maybe you should bring Xander to meet her, before she, you know…" her mother said softly.

Alexis made an indescribable noise, (but as authoress, I'm obliged to try) it was a mix between a grunt, a cry, a moan, and the word okay.

"Alexis? Do you understand?" Mrs. Rhodes said.

"Yeah, I'll talk to you in the morning, night mom" Alexis hung up the phone, and slumped onto the table, cradling her head in her arms, beginning to cry.

It was odd that she was so upset. Honestly her grandmother was not her favorite person in the entire world. She was a type of cynical bitch, to say the least. She had always criticized Alexis, for not being feminine enough, for not being a lady, for picking fights at school. When her mother's scarf was stolen, her grandmother had hit her for "gambling with something that wasn't hers to gamble." Irony being that it was stolen and she hadn't gambled it.

She wasn't exactly sure why she was so upset, but she just was. It was odd bringing Xander to see her. Alexis was sure that she would not want to see them, as she hadn't visited when he was born. Zane didn't have any living grandparents, and Alexis only had one. She felt a strange pull in her stomach, telling her that she should have appreciated that she had a grandmother at all.

"Alexis, what's up?" Zane asked, walking into the kitchen, taking a seat next to her.

"Its nothing," Alexis said, wiping her eyes.

"No it isn't, what is it?" Zane said, rubbing circles on her back.

"I'm taking a trip tomorrow, I'm taking Xander with me" Alexis said.

"That's not what's wrong, what's happening?" Zane asked, concerned.

"My grandmother is dying," Alexis said hollowly.

"I'll go with you" Zane said.

"No, its fine, my grandma is somewhat judgmental, you're not going to want to meet her, trust me" Alexis sighed, she really didn't want Zane to meet her grandmother, she didn't want either of them making judgments.

"I do, besides, I'm on vacation for the next three months, I'll be bored out of my mind, trust me" Zane said, snorting.

A long pause.

"Fine… thanks" She answered.

Which started an extremely long night. A night that should have been filled with celebration, turned into a night of despair, tears, and awkward comfort.

Hey! This chapter was insanely long (almost 20 pages) so here's a recap.

Zane goes to photo shoot, Crazy director Palo, and crazy designers W.L. and Dragon.

He leaves after they tell him to take off his shirt.

He finds Edo and Alexis thisclose on the couch, and learns a bit more about the marriage problems.

Finals, Zane wins (just barely)

Zane meets Karin, who's a complete idiot.

Alexis finds out that her grandmother is dying.

Anywhoo: Enjoy your wait for the next chapter (ie: I have no time to write, I'm doing this on a flash drive during my lunch periods)

10join

Fei!


	16. ARC ONE FINALE: Darkness Returns!

I'm SOOOOO sorry for taking so long to update! I've been super especially awesomely busy! I have stage crew (Even on Saturday, it's a badass set though) and play practice (Student directed plays, and my director sucks) and forensics (not that I ever show up or anything), and mock trial (where I'm partnered with my ex boyfriend… oh the joy)

In addition to homework and all my other obligations

But!

I'm dropping honors math, meaning I wont need to get tutored every morning and twice a week after school anymore… YAY!

Road Trips suck, just as a general thing.

Sure there fun for a while, especially when your with your friends, having a great time, and just going somewhere for the fun of it.

Road Trips are NOT fun when you're suffering from a lack of sleep, and experiencing a migraine.

And they suck even worse when the purpose is to meet your girlfriends dying grandmother, who very likely hates your guts.

Oh yeah, with a screaming baby in the backseat.

Yup, Atticus had decided to come along as well.

"Can we stop at a rest stop? I'm starving!" Atticus asked from the backseat.

Zane gripped the wheel harder. He had told Atticus _three times_ that he wasn't allowed to eat in his new car. Not that the backseat didn't already have baby vomit on it or anything, because the nice leather seats were coated in the stuff.

"Atty, please shut up, you're not allowed to eat in the car" Alexis said, sipping her bottled water.

"You're stuffing your face up there! Why do you get special treatment?" Atticus wined.

"Atticus, shut up" Zane said, reaching into his pocket for his headache medicine. He had already taken twice the recommended amount, but the pounding wouldn't cease.

"Zane, you're popping those things like tic-tacks, I don't think that's very good for you" Alexis said, taking the bottle out of his hand.

Zane rolled his eyes and turned back onto the road.

They were driving six hours each way, Xander had fallen asleep in the backseat once they had picked up Atticus. Atticus hadn't shut up.

"Lex? When was the last time we saw grams anyway?" Atticus asked.

"Your middle school graduation and I think she might have come to your college acceptance party, why?" Alexis asked.

"Well, I couldn't remember the last time we saw her, why didn't she come to your middle school graduation?" Atticus asked in a tone that implied that he knew perfectly well.

"I don't want to discuss this Atticus," Alexis said, leaning against the window.

"Of course you don't, did you ever tell Zane? Huh? Did you? Did you tell him why you haven't spoken to your only living grandparent in almost five years?" Atticus asked, nudging his sister.

"Atticus, I'm not in the mood" Alexis said, glaring at him.

"Well I'll tell him anyway, it was because Alexis told our grandmother that she _didn't _want to marry the man she was betrothed to from birth, and told our grandmother that she _wanted _to work as a duelist and go to duel academy, and _didn't_ want to go to the boarding school in France like all other women in the Rhodes family had before her… our grandmother hates her guts, and you insist on seeing her, and showing my dear grandmother her first great-grandchild… and illegitimate son of a professional duelist… It might break her heart" Atticus said dramatically.

Zane exhaled.

"Atticus, shut up" Alexis hissed.

"Atticus… just… if you don't shut up, I'll throw you out of the car… do you want that?" Zane asked, as if he was a teacher speaking to his little pupil.

"Did you catch that? Did you know that Alexis was ENGAGED? Her whole life? She was still engaged last winter, did you know that? Did you know that her engagement was called off when his family found out she was pregnant, through a newspaper? Did she ever tell you that? Now I don't know exactly why you think it's a good idea to see my dear old dying grandmother, but she definitely doesn't want to see you!" Atticus yelled.

Zane swallowed hard, she was engaged?

"Are you done?" Alexis asked, crystal tears collecting in her eyes.

"I just don't get why you insist on going where you're not wanted" Atticus said, sickly sweet.

"Atticus, I don't understand why your so pissed, honestly… is it necessary to make her feel bad" Zane asked.

"Just so you guys know, I'm only saying this because I felt it was time Zane knew the little secret, before someone else told him" Atticus said calmly.

_I think I like him more when he's being an idiot… why the hell is he so pissed? The last time he acted this, so sadistic and humorless, was when he was possessed by darkness… OH SHIT! _

"Atticus, have you dueled in the last few days?" Zane asked.

He laughed.

"Well well well, looks like someone found me out. Yup, Atticus has lost control, and I'm back baby, and speaking of which," Darkness looked evilly at the sleeping infant. "I think that with his genes, he'd be a great new agent, raised from birth in the art of shadow games,"

Alexis gasped, and jumped to the backseat to protect the baby. Zane sped up on the road.

"You're not going to jump from here are you?" he asked, breaking the speed limit. Not that there were too many people on the road at five AM.

Darkness smirked.

"Of course I would"

Alexis was leaning over her son, trying to keep her safe, shaking with fear.

"Don't worry, he is my host's nephew, I'll take good care of him" He hit a pressure point on her neck, making her pass out.

Zane speed up, trying to make him not jump.

Trying to maneuver the car at the same time, Zane reached back and grabbed his collar.

"If you jump take him I'll send you back for good" Zane said, getting a punch in on his face.

"Yeah, sure" Darkness said, grabbing Xander from the car seat and opening the door.

Zane let go of the wheel and Lunged for Darkness.

"XANDER!" He shouted, lunging for the door.

Darkness waited for the car to swerve dangerously, and jumped out when it did.

"XANDER!"

Zane shouted, trying to jump out of the car.

The door slammed shut.

Zane hit into the window, shoulder first, as the car crashed.

Zane felt something warm on his shoulder, and than nothing.

Hey guys!

REALLY SORRY for the slow updates!

There's one more chapter left of part one.

And, a new arc will begin

The reason for two different arcs is because of the new storyline.

This one will be somewhat more of an adventure storyline (like Taking Him Back, without the rape and plot holes, and a completely different storyline) and its going to be a few chapters long.

Lots of you wanted something like this to happen.

So happen it did.

ONE PIECE PREMIRES TOMMOROW (faints!)

10join

Fei!


	17. Who the hell comes up with this stuff

A/N: Very Important news!

I've been extremely busy, and I'm REALLY sorry for such a long wait for such a short update… I've been really tired as of late, and I can't seem to focus.

And, news that I'm sure you all have found out through various sources (Seto's Nice Girl, I love you and your obsessive, obsessions)

KAISER IS IN A COMA! Which, means he isn't dead! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

Now back to your regularly scheduled fanfiction!

PART 2: CHAPTER 1: Who the hell comes up with this stuff?

Zane woke up in a small white room. His head felt fuzzy, and his eyes were glassy.

_Were I? Last thing that happened… I was… in my room, and I was screaming…_

_Why was I screaming? _

_Alexis! Oh shit, she's pregnant! I'm going to be a father… oh no, how am I going to explain this to my parents? _

"He's awake, Mr. Truesdale, how are you feeling?" A doctor asked him.

Zane rubbed his head, it was bandaged, he couldn't think straight.

"Strange… did I pass out in my room?" Zane asked.

"No you were in a car crash, you have some head trauma, what exactly was happening when you crashed?" The doctor asked.

"A car crash? No, I don't remember what was happening. I was in my room at my house, that was the last place I was" Zane explained.

_I crashed my dad's car? I'm dead, and they don't even know that she's pregnant yet… shit!_

"Zane… according to your parents, you were in that car with three other people. We only found two. Can you recall what happened to Atticus Rhodes, or Xander Kirin Truesdale?" The doctor asked.

"Xander Kirin? Truesdale? Who is he? And I have no idea where Atticus is, who else was in that car?" Zane asked, confused.

_Who the hell is Xander Kirin? Is he a cousin of mine or something? _Zane thought confused.

The doctor looked like he was thinking.

"Apparently. Worse than head trauma, someone, get him in for a CAT scan." The doctor said to the nurse.

Zane sat up in the bed.

_A year? Of my memory? What was going on? _

-Later.

Zane was moved to a recovery room, he was looking for a news channel, to see if there was something about him that might give him a hint at what was happening.

"And in pop culture, Pro League champion Zane Truesdale was in a car crash this morning. His body and the body of his fiancé Alexis Rhodes were recovered. Two other passengers were in the car have been listed missing. His son Xander Kirin Truesdale and his friend Atticus Rhodes were not found in the car or in the surrounding area. If anyone has seen the two of them, please call in."

Zane looked at the screen. There was a picture of Atticus and a baby with purple blue hair and white eyes. That boy looked exactly like him, with different coloring. It was sort of paranormally freaky.

Alexis ran into the room, some cuts on her face, and a cast on her arm.

"Zane? Are you okay? Oh my gawd, what happened to Xander, nobody will tell me anything, I'm really scared!" She ran in and sat on his bed.

"Alexis, who's Xander? Are you okay? Shouldn't you be at school?" Zane asked, staring at her.

She was, different, her hair was shorter… and she was, he hated to say it, a bit wider.

Her face fell.

"Zane, this isn't funny! Don't make jokes!" She cried.

A doctor placed a hand on her shoulder.

"He's lost somewhere in the ballpark of the last year of his memory."

Her face fell again.

"I'll give you two some time" He left them alone.

"Zane, what's the last thing that you remember?" Alexis asked.

"You told me you were pregnant, and I trashed my room, I can't remember anything after that." Zane explained.

Alexis sighed.

"I'll give you the short version.

First of all, Xander's our son, he was born in September. He's almost six months old. And he's talking. Were engaged, by the way, and were supposed to get married in august. Its April now. You won the pro league championship, against Jaden, he came out of the closet for a kid named Johan, and I don't think that you met him by then. Um, you fired your publicist, and got a new one. And, you and I live together. And you and Edo are friends, he's married to Kaiba's sister in law. And he's moving to America because he got kicked out of the league. And, um… my grandma's sick, which was why we were on a trip…" Alexis babbled.

"What happened with, Xander?" Zane asked, he didn't exactly know who Xander was, but if he was his son, then it was his job to care.

"Atticus was taken over by Darkness, and then, he took him. That's why we crashed. We were trying to save him…"

Zane stared at her solemnly.

"Where did Atticus go?" he asked, ignoring the tears in the blond woman's eyes.

"I don't know" She said quietly.

Zane inwardly swore. Darkness was more trouble than he should have been, considering he did reside inside someone like Atticus.

"Were did we crash?" Zane asked

"Zane, you can't leave the hospital! You have amnesia! You don't even know what Xander looks like, or even what you look like for that matter." Alexis said, trying to restrain him.

"Lexi, we need to do something. We've dealt with Darkness before, we can do it again, no matter how long he is in the state, he still is Atticus on the inside" Zane said, getting up and walking over to the mirror on the wall.

FLASHBACK!

"_You can keep my soul either way, just stop this!" Alexis (year 1) _

"_I…I know you" Darkness (Also year 1) _

END FLASHBACK!

Zane grimaced at his face. He was a mess. His face was bandaged, and had stitches on it.

_What's up with my hair? It's so… short…_ he said, tugging on his hair.

"You got it cut" Alexis said, standing behind him.

Zane inhaled.

"Were going to look for him" He said.

"No, I'm going to look for him. You on the other hand, are staying here" Alexis said firmly.

_What's up with her? She acts like she can order me around! She's no where near as strong as I am… what happened this year? _

"You're not going alone" Zane said firmly.

"Fine" Alexis said calmly.

"We need our dueling equipment" Zane said, staring down at her.

"No, you're not coming" Alexis said louder.

"You can't go on your own" Zane said, as if it was a fact, not a command.

"Fine… I'll have Jaden come, or maybe Edo, I'll go with someone, but you are not coming!" Alexis said, shoving him aside.

Zane inhaled, and then exhaled. It wasn't worth it. he would go anyway. There was no point of arguing.

-later.

Alexis had left. She was with Jaden, Edo, and some kid with a funny accent and suspiciously tight and frilly clothes (Johan).

And he was lying in a hospital bed, trying to remember anything and everything.

It was a downhill battle, anytime he tried to remind himself of anything, duels he might have dueled, people he might have met, things he might have said or done, he became more and more frustrated.

He was the pro league champion for gawds sake! Why was he just lying here dong nothing.

The doctors had tried to tell him nicely and sugar coated, but Zane had understood the gritty details beneath their calming words and smiles.

He had mild head trauma, with amnesic affects. Usually in the case he was in, people regained their memory. But it was best to treat the person as if their memory would never return, just in case.

Which, in a word, sucked.

And he wasn't allowed to leave the hospital for another two days.

Meaning, he was helpless, and completely unable to help his own son.

So, his baby son was in the hands of:

A tough, yet only slightly above average duelist, who can't take care of herself, despite her protests.

A cocky, gullible, unemployed teenager who can't handle his own life.

And a ditzy, immature duelist who relies on luck, and his slightly more intelligent boyfriend.

Of course they were up against a ditzy pretty boy's evil alter ego which was placed in him by way of brainwashing for the purpose of sending the world into eternal darkness.

So they were pretty evenly matched.

Right?

_Okay, these are people who have both saved the world, and tried to destroy it, often at the same time. Looks like I'm not going to get a much better group of people. _

Zane stared up at the ceiling, trying to convince himself that this was the truth.

_Ugh, Xander Kirin, who the hell decided to name him such an obscure name anyway? And why the hell did Atticus, no excuse me, Darkness, take him? I mean, sure, professional duelists son, but who is he working with? What the hell is he planning to do? _

Zane's train of thought was cut off.

"You are Zane, correct?" A girl in a short black robe and dark skin came into the room.

"Yes"

"Heir to the cyber prophecy?" She asked.

"How do you know about that? Who are you?" Zane became alert at the mention of his rumored birthright.

"My name is Yasmine, but that is unimportant, I've been informed that you are associated with Darkness" She said walking over to the window.

Zane stared at her again.

"Yes, why are you here?" He asked.

"Because, I also have a connection to Darkness, and he is beginning to act up again, I believe the kidnapping of a certain Xander Kirin is of your concern" She said, turning her back to the room, placing her palm on the window.

"What does Darkness have to do with Xander's kidnapping?" Zane asked, staring at her back.

"Nothing and everything" She said.

"How are you associated with Darkness?" Zane asked, becoming annoyed with her vagueness.

"I'm not surprised that you don't recognize me. After all, I don't think we have ever met. Zane, do you remember something called the spirit pendant?" She asked.

_Spirit pendant, it was that necklace that Jaden and Atticus each had a piece of… _

"Yes"

"Good, I am the reason that Darkness was given a piece of it. He trapped me in the spirit world to be an assassin for all eternity to get it. he promised me he would come back to trade it back for me, once its purpose was served. Of course I did not believe him."

Zane nodded, wanting her to finish her story and get to the point.

"Anyway, I have recently learned that Darkness has risen again. Which is why I was permitted to leave the other world. And he has taken another innocent sacrifice with him. The next heir to the cyber prophecy. Xander, the protector of men." She turned to him at this comment.

"What do you mean the protector of men?" Zane asked.

"Why do you think that you named him a name that you have never heard of before, a name that is more obscure then your own? It was your instincts. You are the heir to the current cyber prophecy: and you were born to be great. But Xander, he is the chosen one, the one that the spirits want more than anything else." She said.

Zane froze, Xander, was the chosen one?

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe in fairy tales" He answered.

"Still a skeptic as always. And this is why you did not ever listen to the lessons of mythology of your birthright, the prophecies, everything linked to you, and your family.

Well Zane, you're in for a history lesson

Long ago, when the cyber monsters were born, they separated into separate houses. By race, by gender, by species, and more specifications that are unnecessary.

But the most powerful were the cyber dragons. They ruled the land from the top of a misty snow peak.

The cyber dragons prospered. When the heir to the head family was born, it was prophesized that he would father the most powerful being in all of time and space. This child would be the protector of men. The heir was beloved, powerful, but he was also very greedy, putting his own wants ahead of others.

Of course, within the cyber race, there were only a handful of women. But the most powerful woman of them all was also the most beautiful. She was supposed to marry the heir, but did not want to. She was born to be the protector of men in her own right, and did not want to give up her position.

The heir also did not want to get married, saying that he did not care for man kind, and he wanted to be the most powerful being in his own right.

When they both refused the wedding, the heads were furious. They sentenced them to be turned into humans, and wander the world until they produced the protector of men. Then, and only then, could the cyber prophecy be fulfilled, and the cyber monsters would gain ultimate supremacy.

Do you understand what I am saying?" she asked.

Zane stared at her in disbelief.

"You're making this up" he said skeptically.

"You, Zane, whose name means beloved, are the heir to the cyber prophecy. Alexis, who is the protector of men, is the heir to the cyber angel prophecy, weather this is known to her or not I am not sure. And your son is Xander, the chosen one, the ultimate protector of all beings on earth. Do you think his birth was an accident? I believe that it was set up by a certain person who is very aware of his destiny, the guardian of wealth perhaps?" She asked.

"I have no clue what you are speaking of, I lost my past years memory"

Her face turned red.

"I apologize, I should have restored it at once, and I will now restore your memory" She said, placing her palm to his forehead.

Zane remembered everything, every time Xander laughed, the reactions he had to certain cards, it all made sense.

"What does Darkness want with Xander? He said that he wanted to raise him for evil!" Zane said suddenly.

"yes, you see, Darkness does not understand a balance that needs to be kept. That is the part of the prophecy you do understand yes? The balance that the cyber dragons and the Ura (dark) cyber dragons create? He wants the protector of men to protect his disciples, the people he makes his, he his mistaking Xander for Kieran. To get Xander back, you must find, and work with Kieran" She said.

"Who is Kieran?" He asked.

"Kieran and Mitsu are the guardians of light and dark, if you find them, you will get Xander back. Do not go looking for Xander. The people you have sent are fine to handle the job at hand, but Kieran and Mitsu are the two who you need to get him back. And to save the world from being sent into the cross section of all 12 dimensions" She said in a warning voice.

"And just where will I find them?" He asked.

"They are always twins, a boy and a girl. And they are always related to the protector of men. Every time they are born in history, the wealthy guardian takes them out before their powers are awakened. But if you need to find them, I suggest going to the witch of light, Mizuchi Saiou, she lives in the source of all information. But that is all I can tell you for the time being. My time here is out, when I can come back, I will, I will give you guidance.

But remember this, Kieran and Mitsu are the only way to save Darkness, and end this vicious cycle. Their powers should never be awakened, unless in a time where the protector of men is taken by the Darkness. And you must find them, and teach them to fight.

That is all I can tell you, good bye Beloved Zane Truesdale, and good luck"

With that, she vanished into thin air.

Yes, the new arc begins.

Will Zane be able to find Kieran and Mitsu in time? 

Just what does Darkness want with Xander?

And how much time did it take Fei to think of a story that incorporates all of the main characters names?

FIND OUT, IN HOW DID I END UP IN THIS MESS'S NEXT CHAPTER:

"The balance of light and dark is more complex than you ever thought"

10join

Fei!


	18. I waited a month for this?

Hey guys! I am sooooo sorry for going AWOL on all of you.

Long story short, I am what kids in my school call (excuse the term) "Asian Failing" (getting B's and mostly B+ with a few A's thrown in)

And I have to devote a lot of my time to my schools extremely hardcore theatre department: I need to show that I'm a committed member so I can make the plays once I'm a sophomore.

I landed the only freshman spot on stage crew for the drama (curtain pulling, it's hardcore) so I'm trying really hard!

Now back to what your interested to:

CHAPTER 18!

The twins of light and dark: Kieran and Mitsu are never on this earth at the same time as another pair. Oddly enough though, they are also never not on the earth. Usually they go through their whole lives not knowing just what they are, unless they are called upon.

Unfortunately for him, Zane was the one doing the calling.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT!" Zane yelled, throwing another ancient book against the wall of his apartment.

Sheppard had come with a stack of books about the prophecy after he saw the news reports about Atticus kidnapping Xander. But none of them told Zane how to locate the twins.

Zane had been at it for almost two days, not eating or sleeping even once. His mood was not a great one… and what was worse, there was a swarm of paparazzi lurking just outside his neighborhood, knowing that he would have to leave his house sometimes.

All he was able to discover through the ancient books was that he wasn't even sure he believed in the legend, because it was all too, what was the word for it? Subjective.

"Kieran and Mitsu? You probably don't even exist, am I being punked or something, because this REALLY isn't funny!" Zane said, smashing another useless book against the wall.

"Zane, I think those books cant handle any more of your abuse…" His publicist said, walking through his front door.

Zane turned his head slowly, and arose from his seat, ready to kill.

Until he remembered something.

"Isn't your first name Mitsu?" He asked.

"It is, though I hate it, I really don't know what was going through my parents head, and then they named my brother Kieran too, really, they're a little messed up in the head,"

Zane paused.

"Would your brother happen to be your twin?" He asked.

She nodded.

"Why is it any concern of yours?" She asked.

It suddenly all made sense.

According to the books: The twins of light and dark are never complete strangers to Xander: And they all have similar traits: The twin of light is always destructive and social.

It made so much sense, that Zane was pissed he hadn't thought of it.

"Read this" He said, handing her a short version of the legend of Kieran and Mitsu.

She quickly devoured the book.

"oh, my, g-d… I think I should call my brother" She said.

_Okay, so clearly she's not a skeptic. _

-an hour later.

Zane was back to reading, after his publicist made him shower, and eat.

Kieran walked through the door.

He fit his description: Dark haired and dark eyed, with an endless look in his eyes.

"Kieran, read this" Mitsu said, handing him her notes on the prophecy.

He also read it at lightning speed.

"What do you need us for?" He asked.

_I defiantly like this twin better… _he thought.

"I need you to contact darkness, and get Xander back" Zane said.

"And how are we going to fight darkness?" Kieran asked.

"Mitsu, didn't you once say that you attended duel academy?" Zane asked

"Well I did, but I only went there to learn how to promote dueling… Kieran can duel though, if that's what you're asking…" She explained.

"What skill level would you put yourself on?" Zane asked.

"I'm most defiantly not a novice, I was in blue at the academy… but… it's been a while…" Kieran answered.

"You two are getting a three hour crash course in dueling… that's all I can prepare you…" Zane said, pulling out his box of spare cards.

-four hours later.

They were in Kieran's car, driving to the spot of the car accident.

"So, wait, um… how do you know that were going to be dueling Darkness for your son? I mean really, it's your future brother in law, he's not going to kill his nephew…" Mitsu said, fiddling with the spare duel disk that Zane had leant her.

"I never said he was going to kill Xander, but it's just how we do things" Zane explained, getting more and more pissed off by the second.

"And how good at dueling is this darkness person?" Kieran asked.

"Not quite at pro league level, but way above average" Zane said, sucking in his breath.

They were there.

Zane pulled the car over, and parked it behind a conveniently placed bush.

"Here" Zane said, opening the car door.

The twins cautiously walked out and began following Zane into the woods.

Now I know how much you would all love to hear about Zane's horrible walk in the woods with his still insane publicist and her twin brother. But lets switch points of view to confuse you some more!

Alexis was wet, cold, hungry, and alone.

She was lying on a small island in the middle of a lake. It looked big enough to swim across, but she remembered that she was looking for Xander, and had gotten separated from her "buddy" Judai. The groups had been decided by the skill of the duelist, and not wanting Judai and Johan to get bored and make out somewhere.

There was a loud cry from the distance, and Alexis shot up.

_Xander! _She thought, her heart beating faster.

She took off in the direction of the loudening noise, until she got to the center of the island.

There, Xander was sitting in Darkness's lap.

"Don't worry my dear sweet nephew, your mommy is here to try and save you" Darkness said, laughing.

"Give him back to me!" Alexis said with her strongest glare.

"Or what? You'll duel me? Look at yourself, you have no powers, no ability, your just a little girl with some very powerful relations" Darkness laughed.

"Let him go Atty!" She yelled firmly.

"Aww, trying to appeal to your brother eh? Not going to work this time cutie! If he really wanted this baby to live, he'd go ahead and take over; there is no true darkness in his heart after all! But he hates how the baby resembles his father, just lightened and darkened in a few spots. He hates how this baby came into the world as an accident. He hates that his mother and his father are okay with this little baby changing everything. But you know what he hates the most? The fact that the baby's parents insist on being together, even though you two aren't right for one another, your not in love, and he HATES it!" Darkness ranted, rocking the baby who began to cry again.

Alexis froze.

"It's not true, ITS NOT TRUE!" She screamed.

"You're denying the honest truth. You know why he's not interested in the wedding, because he felt like it was the right thing to do when he proposed. He wanted his son to have a stable living environment, and he couldn't care less about you…" Darkness taunted.

"Why are you lying to me!? It's not true!" She screamed.

"Oh, but it is… what reason would I have to be mendacious? You and your dear sweet son will be fine. Once I have the twins, I'll be on my merry way. But you can save more people than your son by stopping Zane from giving them to me… so what'll it be? Save your son and go on living a false and happy life, until I decide to exert my power of course, or let your son be raised by me, his dear sweet uncle, maybe in America, I bet I could have an impressive career there and save the world from darkness? The choice is yours my dear little sister, Zane and the twins are approaching, and only you can make the choice" Darkness snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Alexis stood firm, and then ran back to the beach.

_The world? Or Xander. _

Zane, his publicist, and a thirty something man were all in a boat, crossing the river.

Alexis dashed out to them.

They pulled into the island.

Her heart pounded, the next thing she said could save her life, and ruin the world, or ruin her life and save the world.

"Zane, we need to stop" She said.

CLIFFHANGER

Yes, after an entire month, you get a tiny chapter with a crappy and confusing ending.

Well, off to baby-sit the cutest most adorable babies on the planet

10join

Fei!


	19. Everyone loves an anticlimax, dont they?

A/N: Onesided babyshipping is cannon… EW EW EWWWW!!!!! And just when royalshipping began to become popular again! EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A hush came over the forest.

"Stop what?" Zane asked.

"I don't know" Alexis said quietly.

"What don't you know Alexis? I don't think you know this, but I am SICK and TIRED of people talking in riddles all the time!" Zane yelled.

Alexis took a step back, he didn't yell at her. Especially not in the way he just had.

"If we take Xander back, the world will end, and if we don't, then we'll loose him" Alexis said.

"What the hell do you mean?" Zane asked.

"Exactly what she says Zane" Darkness said, appearing out of nowhere, Xander in his arms.

"I have the twins, just give him back" Zane growled.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you? I'll make you a deal, you and me will duel, if I win, then you give me all three of them, along with your eternal loyalty. If I loose than you get your son back, fair enough?" Darkness asked.

Zane paused, the terms weren't fair, but he wasn't in a place to debate.

"How do I know your not lying?"

Darkness snapped his fingers, a clear orb surrounded Alexis, Kieran, Mitsu, and Xander. It floated up ten feet into the air in between the two of them.

"The orb will float to the winner of the match. Simple enough?" Darkness said, smirking.

"I accept your terms" Zane said.

"Oh, just one clincher, the bubble is soundproof, airtight, and they can't see out of it" Darkness laughed.

"So you're saying I need to end this quickly, yes?" he asked.

"Exactly"

-in the bubble.

"What the hell is going on here?" Kieran asked.

"Were trapped" Alexis said calmly, holding Xander tightly to her.

"And how the hell are we going to get out of here?" Kieran asked.

"Were probably in some dangerous situation, which gets worse with every turn, to ensure that the match has to end quickly" Alexis said calmly.

"You seem awfully calm about this" Mitsu said accusingly.

"This isn't the first time this has happened to me, in fact, its happened more times than I can count. Sit and wait is the best strategy" Alexis said stroking Xander's hair.

-back out on the field.

Darkness: 2000

Zane: 2350

"Their air is half gone by now, if they haven't been speaking, you might want to just forfeit, if they die its no concern of mine" Darkness laughed.

-Back in the bubble.

"How long has it been?" Mitsu asked.

"Stop taking" Alexis said quietly.

"Why?" Kieran asked.

"Were loosing air, don't panic just keep quiet" Alexis said, closing her eyes and leaning against the wall of the bubble.

"This is just great…"

-Back out on the field.

"Any last words?" Zane asked, his strongest monster was out on the field, and Darkness had one weak monster, and a handful of monster cards.

"You haven't seen the last of me, just remember that Atticus called me out because he was unhappy about something, and I have a feeling its only going to get worse" Darkness yelled.

"Shut up" Zane said, sending out an attack.

"I'm going to kill you next time we meet, I swear it" Darkness screamed. His mask disintegrating as he felt the force of the attack.

The bubble fell to the ground, and shattered.

Mitsu and Kieran looked around skeptically, and Alexis just looked mad.

"Where is Atticus?" She asked.

Zane pointed to the passed out boy on the ground.

"I need to discuss something with him" Alexis said.

-Later

Zane was sleeping in a guest room in the Rhode's house, they had arrived an hour ago (around midnight) and he had been falling asleep standing up. Mrs. Rhodes had practically had a heart attack at the appearance of the four of them, and sent them all to bed. Zane had for once in his life, complied and went to sleep.

Alexis on the other hand, was sitting in her brother's room.

"Atticus, why did you do it?" Alexis asked.

"I was under his control, I had no choice in it" Atticus said.

"Untrue, you put the mask on, why did you do it?" Alexis asked.

"I didn't put the mask on at first; I think you noticed that I didn't have it on at first. I was dueling Johan that night on the train home, I guess Darkness took over somehow" Atticus explained.

"Darkness said that, you were … unhappy that Zane and I were together, is it true?" Alexis asked.

Atticus laughed.

"Unhappy? Pissed maybe, but I would rather you with some other people, for instance, Jamison" Atticus smiled.

Alexis looked like she might die.

"Shhhh! Zane might hear you" Alexis said, clutching a pillow to her.

"I don't get why you never told Zane about him" Atticus said.

"How was I supposed to tell him, oh, by the way Zane, were kind of dating, and we have a son together, but I've been betrothed my entire life thanks to a debt so big that my family had to flee our home country two generations ago… how do you think he would react to that, just imagine it" Alexis made a face.

"Well, you still need to go and visit Grandma, he'll probably hear all about it from her"

"I'd rather she tells him than me, it doesn't matter anyway, they called off the engagement anyway" Alexis said.

"After they found out you were pregnant" Atticus laughed.

"See and you said nothing good would come out of dating a guy more popular than canned bread" Alexis said, laughing again.

"That was one of the dumbest analogies I've ever heard" Atticus said.

"Unlike you, I need sleep" Alexis said, walking out of the room.

-Later

"Please, for the love of all things good and sweet, change the song" Alexis said, trying to reach for the radio.

"My car, my music" Atticus chimed in.

Because Zane had totaled his car, and public transit was totally out of the question at the current media scandal filled moment, they were forced to drive up in Atticus's car.

Zane was still sleeping against the window in the front seat, and Alexis was in the back with Xander sleeping next to her, totally out of reach of the radio.

"Are you going to tell him or not? I told you this morning, it might be better if he has some warning, I mean, I've mentioned it, but I don't think he was listening to me" Atticus said.

"Sorry, did you say something?" Alexis smiled.

"You're telling him next time we take a stop, or I won't drive you any further" Atticus said

"I don't really want to get in a fight with a guy who's been sleeping for twelve hours straight, he's not in the right state of mind right now" Alexis said.

-Rest stop.

"Zane, for the last time, are you sure you don't want anything?" Alexis asked for the tenth time, trying to put off telling him the truth.

"I'm fine" He said, pulling the brim of his hat further down his face, and pushing up his sunglasses.

"Alexis, I expect you two to be arguing when I'm back from paying, and if you haven't told him, I will, understand?" Atticus said quietly.

Alexis sent him a glare, and than nodded.

"Why have you been sending your brother the death look all day?" Zane asked.

"He's blackmailing me" Alexis said, rolling her eyes.

"What is it this time?" Zane asked.

"Actually, it's something about you" Alexis said.

Zane nodded his head, as to say _what is it?_

"um, well, you'll probably hear it from my grandma, but well, I have to tell you first to make sure you don't freak out in front of her" Alexis said.

"And what is it?" Zane asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Well, you know that my family had to flee France over fifty years ago, right? Well, it was because of a debt. The family my family owed money to tracked us down here around seventeen years ago, and we didn't have the money to pay them back, so they made a deal. I was going to marry the heir to their family when I turned twenty one, and the debt was called off. Until, well, a few months ago, and they called off the wedding" Alexis explained.

"And whys your grandmother going to bring it up?" Zane asked.

"Because we still don't have the money to pay them back, and she's still trying to figure out how to settle the deal" Alexis said.

Zane was silent.

"How much is the debt?" he asked after a while.

"No, no, NO! The amount of money doesn't even matter, and don't you dare try to pay it off, that's not how this works" Alexis yelled.

Atticus stepped back to the table.

"Arguing, sweet music to my ears, so I take it she told you?" Atticus smiled.

The second half of the ride was carried out in silence, when they finally pulled into the gravel driveway, Atticus spoke up.

"Let me go in first" He said, turning off the engine.

Zane lifted Xander out of his seat, and waited for Alexis.

Atticus rang the doorbell, and waited for a nurse to let him in.

"You're the grandkids right? She's doing well today, she's in the living room" She said, stepping aside to let him in.

Alexis, carrying Xander, walked in after her brother.

The inside smelled like cleaning product and cigar smoke, and it was scarily clean.

Atticus knocked on the door.

"Grandma, it's your loving grandchildren" Atticus said with a fake smile plastered on his face.

"Come in" A shrill voice answered.

An old woman in a pant suit was sitting in an armchair, reading a huge leather bound book.

"You've gotten so big in the past few years and handsome too! I bet the girls are flocking to you" She said with a toothless smile.

_She doesn't seem so mean_ Zane thought, watching from the doorway.

"Well, I wouldn't say flocking…" Atticus smiled sheepishly.

"Nonsense" She insisted.

"Well, I brought someone who I bet you really want to meet" Atticus smiled.

She raised her eyebrow as Atticus pushed Alexis into the room.

"oh…" She said, eyeing her great grandson.

"His name is Xander, he's brilliant too! He's not even a year old and he can talk and everything" Atticus said, excitedly.

"Bring him to me" She said.

Atticus handed him over with care.

_Please don't let him say dummy… _All three prayed.

"Duel!" Xander screamed.

"oh g-d, not this one too" She said with a face of horror.

"No?" Xander asked, frowning

"Well, he's smart, I'll give him that" She said, studying his appearance.

"Alexis, you've grown bigger as well, lets see, what is your job right now?"

"I'm going to start in the league in a few months, but I'm Xander's mom first" She answered, her spine straightening.

"And your boyfriend, he hasn't spoken yet, are you mute or just rude? Introduce yourself" She commanded.

"I'm Zane" He said calmly.

"I see, the little boy takes after you. You're a friend of Atticus's yes?" She said.

"He's my best friend grandma" Atticus chimed in.

"Oh, I see, and how are you supporting my granddaughter and her son?" She asked accusingly.

_I don't know if she doesn't honestly know, or she's just mean_

"I'm a professional duelist" He explained.

She laughed.

"I said support. That career is harder to get into than St. Celias academy for girls. They didn't even take my grandchildren… how long are you going to sit on your bum before you get a real job?" she criticized.

"Grandma, he's ranked number one in the world" Alexis explained.

"I'm aware, you don't think I haven't read all of the things they printed about the two of you? Now, once you're a wash out, how are you going to support them?" She asked.

"I'm going to work for the production branch at a company, I already have discussed it with the owner of the company" Zane explained.

"I see… and just a question, are the two of you getting married anytime soon?" She asked.

Atticus grabbed Alexis's hand out of her pocket and thrust it in their grandmothers face.

"They've been engaged for a couple months, their supposed to get married in the spring" Atticus explained.

"It's very small; they don't pay duelists as well as I thought they did do they?" She asked.

Zane balled up his fist.

"That was my grandmother's wedding ring, she gave it to me" he said, trying to keep his cool.

"I see, not from a particularly good family are you?" She asked.

_Says the woman who fled a country due to debt. _

"With all due respect, I didn't come here to be criticized." Zane said, picking up Xander who was fussing on the couch.

"Well, what do I have to do but criticize; my granddaughter had her whole life perfectly planned out. She was going to marry the heir to one of France's wealthiest families, and be set for life, while reliving her family of a horrible debt. You come along, get the engagement called off, and ruin my granddaughters perfect future" She narrowed her eyes.

_I will not get mad, I will not yell at a dying woman, I will not get mad_ he repeated over and over in his head.

"Grandma! It wasn't his fault! Don't yell at him! I wasn't going to go ahead with the marriage to that horrible guy anyway!" Alexis exclaimed.

"Honey, you didn't have a choice, Jamison called off the wedding because you were pregnant, and that is the only reason… and don't call him horrible, he is smart, and handsome, and wealthy, and a gentleman" She scolded.

"And five years older than me! And a prick when you weren't looking! Grandma, I'm marrying a guy who I love and am happily with. I don't understand why you dislike me so much! Can you just stop nitpicking?" Alexis screamed.

She paused, and then laughed.

"My lovely talented granddaughter, I'm doing this out of love. Your whole life you've been ruining every chance you get to have a wonderful life, from what schools you chose to attend, to your career choice… I just want you to be happy, and pushing you to the right direction is the only way I see it happening."

"Grandma… I'm happy with my life right now" She answered.

"Mam, your doctor is coming soon" the nurse said from the hallway.

"I see" She said quietly.

"It was great to see you all, but you have to leave" She said, gesturing to the nurse.

"Bye grandma" Atticus said.

-Later

Alexis was already lying face down on the bed trying to sleep by the time Zane had managed to put Xander down.

"I cant believe this week" He murmured noticing the calendar hadn't been marked in over five days.

"**You** can't believe this week? That was the first time my grandma ever said anything nice to me ever" Alexis said.

"She wasn't as horrible as I had imagined" Zane said.

"She was being nice, whose sake it was for I don't know, but it was nice that she finally was at least accepting of my choices in life…" Alexis sat up to speak.

"So how bad was this James?" Zane asked, sitting on the bed.

"Jamison" Alexis corrected out of habit.

"Jamison?" Zane asked.

"Well, I had to spend every summer at his estate from when I was five to the summer after my junior year" Alexis began

"Alone?"

"Sometimes Atticus came, but other than that I was alone, though some of the servants had children, and I played with them"

"So I take it you two were not on good terms?" Zane asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, when you're five and he's ten, being a boy or a girl doesn't really matter, so we got along fine when we were really little. Then, when I was six, we found out we were supposed to get married when we were older. Of course our first response was "ew" but it gradually became something way at the back of our minds" Alexis laughed.

"So you two were friendly at first" Zane repeated.

"Then, when he turned twelve, he became an obnoxious bratty boy because I wasn't a baby anymore. So we hated each other from afar until he turned fifteen…" Alexis stopped the story.

"May I ask what happened?"

"Well when I was ten and he was fifteen, the mother of the family decided that it was time I learned to be a lady or whatever it was that she expected of me. So she sends me to etiquette camp during the day, and tries to get me and Jamison to be civil to one another during mealtimes."

"Only during meals?"

"It was the only time we saw one another"

"And you were outlandishly rude to one another during meals?" Zane asked, wanting the story.

"Well, he was fifteen and I was ten, so it was just little insults at that time… kicking one another, things like that. It wasn't until I was about fourteen that it became really horrible" Alexis said.

"How horrible?" Zane asked.

"Well, fourteen meant he was nineteen right? He was a teenage boy, becoming an adult. So it wasn't a big deal that I was so much younger anymore, because I was a teenager, and I, well, looked like a teenager. Of course, with that age came a state of mind with him. Little insults became comments" Alexis stopped.

"What kind of comments?" Zane asked, knowing a combination water works or anger was coming soon.

"During meals he'd whisper things into my ear. Usually just once while his parents weren't looking."

"What did he say?"

"I don't know the exact comments, and I didn't really understand what he meant when I was that young. He'd say little things that he'd make me do after we were married,"

"Do?" Zane asked, clueless about these things as always.

"Yeah, I didn't really know what he meant until I was fifteen and my brother came along, and he heard the comment, and he smacked Jamison for saying it to me. Atticus was sent home the next day, and he didn't even get a chance to explain what had happened. He told me one night what the comments meant."

"What did they mean?"

Alexis stopped.

"Think about it. A nineteen year old boy to a girl that he was supposed to marry. What would he say to her? What type of comment really angers Atticus?"

Zane's mouth opened.

"He **didn't**…"

"He **did**, so that went on until the last summer, and they got harsher every year, and more frequent, and probably worse because I understood what they meant. And his parents didn't notice it either, or they pretended they didn't. When he locked me in his bedroom for twelve hours and wouldn't let me leave or eat or anything until I made out with him. His parents just asked me if I was feeling sick. I hated it, every summer until senior year it happened again and again and again and I hated it!" Alexis threw her pillow against the wall, and quickly got up to retrieve it.

"What happened senior year?" Zane asked.

Alexis sent him the evil eye, and then laughed.

"I got pregnant stupid!" She laughed.

"So does this story have a happy ending?" Zane asked.

"Of course, I ended up with the handsome Kaiser, and we all lived happily ever after, or something like that" Alexis smiled.

One chapter left.

Yup, you heard me.

There is only one chapter left.

Then maybe a preview to the sequel or something of that general nature…

10join

Fei!


	20. A large duck in a what?

Well, I'm guilty as charged for hitting well over the 1 month mark: Sorry, I've had a lot going on (and gave up on my beta- SHI YOUR IN TROUBLE!!!!)

Alas, last chapter. It's sad when my greatest story ever ends… but, there is a sequel coming, and there are two bonus chapters (a preview to the sequel, and the first chapter of the novel I'm writing based on this very story)

I owe thanks to everyone who reviewed

And WLD came up with the commercial idea

If there was a way to go back in time, and fix everything that had gone wrong on the night of December 25 one year ago, Zane would have done it.

At least, he would have ten months ago. Every decision has pros and cons, every single one, and often, we want to go to the land that might have been if you had made the other choice. Zane often did on nights when he got no sleep, or when Alexis was being a flake, or his career was out of control, or he remembered he was friends with Edo freaking Phoenix. Often thinking what would have happened if he hadn't gotten Alexis pregnant, if Xander was aborted before he was even born, if he had given his parents what he wanted.

FLASH TO AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WHEN EDO WAS SICK ON CHRISTMAS THAT YEAR

Zane was tired, dead tired. His publicist (Kagura, the even more evil one) had him shooting some stupid commercial that involved shampoo. "Never wear black without the blue" he had said, trying to keep his mind focused on the wonderful pile of money that he was being paid. Commercial shootings were pretty short compared to some things.

Of course he had hated it, in fact he had hated almost everything since he lost in the finals to Edo, lost the girl of his dreams, and realized that at twenty three years old he lived with his parents. And played a children card game, for a LIVING!

Yes, when he had finally asked Alexis to be his girlfriend, she had mumbled something about "Jamison" and said she was sorry. It was only a while ago, on her twenty first birthday that he learned that she was ENGAGED. She had been leading him on for years, that little whore. And even now she was off in France to get married to some rich schmuck.

Alexis was none too pleased either. Not only was today her wedding day, but she had just walked in on her fiancé making out with her bridesmaid the night before, a great way to start a marriage. Oh, he was allowed to date and have girlfriends, it was her that had to stay white as winter's snow. So she was doomed to an eternity among the French upper class, while her brother was allowed to fly free as a bird (although, the family they owed the money too had a daughter as well).

So basically, they both went through life thousands of miles apart, and unhappy.

BACK TO THE UNIVERSE THAT THE STORY TAKES PLACE IN

_I don't understand why I'm here_ Zane thought, looking into the bathroom mirror. He was in his parents house, as both of them were spending a week apart from one another, Xander was with his mother at home of course.

_Nooo, couldn't have just eloped, went to a dueling tournament in Vegas two weeks ago, could have done it there, but no, I decided to go through with this monstrosity of a wedding. _

The wedding was taking place in the Rhodes backyard, outdoor weddings tended to be easier, but of course, whatever could go wrong would.

After a long dreadful month of police interrogation, cover up stories, and eventually a good alibi, the kidnapping scandal was resolved on the notion that Atticus had saved Xander from the car accident, and had gotten lost in the woods because he was barely conscious, and the press had over reacted. Alexis's arm was merely in a light air cast, and most of Zane's stitches were taken out, the scars healing well.

Xander had gotten out without a hitch, and Sheppard promised security was beefed up around him. Zane hardly cared, as long as he was safe.

He meaning Xander of course.

Right?

Moving on, Zane had hardly realized that they had a wedding coming up (because the details were extremely under wraps so the press wouldn't know) until Alexis had told him that they were spending the week apart, seven days ago.

Scary as hell, he was going to be married in less than five hours.

Scarier as hell, this was the first time he was going to see Alexis in a week, and they were going to be MARRIED.

A long breath escaped his lips as he took one last look into the mirror, smirking at his hair, now back to his neck.

The marriage was as informal as possible, taking place outside of the Rhodes home, the ceremony being preformed by one of Zane's cousins.

So generally speaking, it was a low budget wedding with a reception that really was only taking place at the request of a certain someone's parents.

Alexis hated the idea of a big wedding, ever since she had been told that she was going to have to marry Jamison. She had insisted on the tiny at home one. Zane just hated parties of any kind, so he had agreed.

There were only a few people invited, both Zane's and Alexis's families, Johan and Jaden (back from Europe) Blair (maid of honor) and Edo (going through divorce negotiations).

Zane was sitting in the passenger seat of his new car, glad that his father had offered to drive. He was sweating at his palms, and felt like he was going to puke.

"I'm proud of you" His dad said, never taking his eyes off the road.

Zane stayed quiet.

"No, really, I'm proud that you were able to figure everything out, and make something of your little screw up. No, that's not how I meant it…" He sounded frustrated.

"Dad, please, I'm curious" Zane said genuinely.

"Look, in my eyes, and by definition of age, you're a kid. At twenty three your entire life should be ahead of you, you should still just be trying to figure things out. But that's not how it is with you. You have a family, with a son, and a beautiful girl. And you have a career, and a fallback career lined up… its just… I'm so glad that everything has turned out so great for you" His dad finished.

_I will not cry, I will not mess up my J-rock metro guyliner, I will not cry… _

"are you crying?" His dad asked.

Zane almost laughed as he turned towards the window.

"No…"

"Zane…"

"…yes"

"Good, then you know you're ready for this"

Now I know how much you would love to see how the rest of the car ride, but there's more drama brewing elsewhere.

"Alexis… honey?" Mrs. Rhodes said, brushing her hair.

"What mom?" Alexis said, trying not to move and mess up her perfect antique dress.

"You know how this wedding is supposed to be really small?" She asked.

"Mom, don't tell me there's a swarm of paparazzi outside, please, this is supposed to be my day, PLEASE" Alexis said, taking a deep breath.

"No, that's not it" Her mom said, yanking hard on a tangle.

"Okay, what is it?" Alexis asked, staring at herself in the mirror.

"We have an, unexpected guest" Her mom said with the quiet intonation of a death announcement.

"Who is it?"

"He's going to be here in a minuet"

Alexis sucked in her breath, getting ready for the worst case scenario, it could be anyone, Zane's publicist, Satorious (fresh out of therapy), even Crowler.

Her eyes focused on the reflection of the door in the mirror.

A moment that felt like eternity passed as Alexis stared down the door.

It finally cracked open.

"Zane's here" Dr. Rhodes poked his head in.

"He can't see her, keep him occupied" Mrs. Rhodes ordered.

"He's playing with his son" Dr. Rhodes said, stepping into the room.

"Is he here yet?" Mrs. Rhodes asked, nervously.

"Yes, I need to keep him and Zane from killing one another, and he's so exited to be here," Dr. Rhodes said grimly.

A long silence, and then.

"Let him in"

Dr. Rhodes walked out of the room.

"Mom, who is it?" Alexis asked.

The door opened again.

"Hmmm, not really in a position to be wearing white are you?" He said, flipping his brown bangs into his eyes.

"I'll leave the two of you alone" Mrs. Rhodes said, getting her ass out of the bedroom.

"Leave… this is private property, you have no right to be here" Alexis said, not even turning around to face him.

"I think I have plenty of right, after all, this is as much my occasion as it is yours" He said, smirking.

"Your occasion, how is this your occasion?" Alexis asked, looking at his reflection.

"Today, you get married, and I can date whomever I want, besides I want to meet this manwhore of a husband of yours" He said, leaning against the doorframe.

"Zane is twice the man you ever were Jamison" Alexis said, spinning around to face him.

"Oh really? Is he high class, wealthy, from a prestigious family?" Jamison smirked.

Alexis glared at him.

"I got you a microscope, maybe then you can see the diamond in that tiny ring" He said, actually tossing a toy microscope on her bed.

"Jamison, I don't know why you're out to ruin my day, but if you could leave, I'd appreciate it" Alexis said.

"There's a legal technicality" Jamison said.

Alexis stopped.

"A legal technicality?" She repeated.

"You see, because we were legally engaged for over sixteen years, that was the decided payment for your family, there's still the matter of how your going to pay the sum back" He said, grinning.

"That was up to my grandmother, and she died a month ago" Alexis said solemnly

"Yes, but, I'm smart enough to know that your going to have more children than that, and here's my proposition: your first daughter will marry my first son" Jamison said, dead serious.

"You hated the entire arranged marriage ordeal in the first place, why would you want that?" Alexis asked.

"I do not, what I wanted was for your family to move to France and work for mine for all eternity, but it didn't go over well. Once you have a daughter, we will meet again, and discuss the terms of this debt" Jamison said, bowing to her.

"Why did you come today?" Alexis asked.

"To annoy you, and remind you of all the wonderful memories you left me in my bedroom that last summer" He broke into an evil grin.

"Jamison, this is my wedding day, and if you could stop being an asshole for one minuet, then maybe you can remember that you weren't even invited, if you would please show yourself the door, I'd appreciate it." Alexis said, returning to her makeup table.

"Just reminding you that you're a little whore, and there's no way I would want you or your bastard children in my family" Jamison bowed once again and left.

_I will not cry, I spent way to much time on my makeup, I will not cry_.

Back to Zane:

"He's going to baby vomit on your suit" Dr. Rhodes said, taking Xander out of his arms.

Zane rolled his eyes and took his son back.

"It's almost time, you might want to get ready" Dr. Rhodes said, taking the baby back.

"I'm ready"

"You have the ring?" Dr, Rhodes asked.

Zane took it out of his pocket.

"You know your vows?"

Zane nodded.

"You have a large duck in a fireman hat?" Dr. Rhodes asked with a straight face.

Zane raised an eyebrow.

"Why would I need one of those?" Zane asked.

Dr. Rhodes laughed.

"No reason, just seeing if you were as calm as you seemed"

Zane half smiled.

"But seriously, you need to get in place"

Back to Alexis.

"I'm sorry, were just not really in a position to refuse him right now" Mrs. Rhodes apologized for the tenth time that minuet.

"It's fine, he's an asshole" Alexis said, starring in the mirror one more time.

"You ready?" She asked, smiling.

"I feel like I want to puke, and my hands are sweaty, does that count?" Alexis asked, making herself smile.

"You're ready" Mrs. Rhodes said, leading her out of her childhood room, and to the backyard.

The small crowd was assembled at the very back part of the lawn, waiting for the back door to open.

Zane felt like he wanted to puke.

The door opened a crack, and Dr. Rhodes and Alexis came out, walking slowly and carefully (as not to make Alexis trip over her own feet).

Zane now really felt like he wanted to puke.

In what felt like an eternity and absolutely no time at all, the pair stopped, and Dr. Rhodes passed on his youngest child.

"Take care of her" He whispered.

Zane gave a curt nod, and began walking forward.

The second he stopped, he took his first breath in what felt like ages and turned to Alexis.

She wore no veil, there was no need for it, and they had no reasons for secrets such as those.

"Normally, there would be some sort of religious preceding, but due to the request of the bride and groom, this is going to be short, sweet and to the point." Zane's cousin laughed and picked up a book.

"Do you, Zane Truesdale, take Alexis Rhodes to be your Lawfully Wedded wife, to love and honor, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, wherever life may take you, until the day that you die?"

"I do" Zane said as calmly as he could.

"Do you, Alexis Rhodes, take Zane Truesdale to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and honor, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, wherever life may take you, until the day that you die?"

"I do" Alexis said, smiling.

"Does anyone here, besides a certain ex fiancé of the bride, may you rot in your grave, have a legitimate reason why these two should not be wed, please speak now, or forever hold your peace"

There was a tense moment of silence, and then:

"DUEL!" Xander screeched.

Everyone, including one Zane Truesdale laughed.

"Exchange your rings, and you may kiss the bride"

Zane turned red, and leaned in for a small kiss, Alexis followed his lead. Their lips met for a mere moment, and then they broke apart.

"Now, may I present Mr. and Mrs. Zane Truesdale"

Everyone clapped as the two of them held hands and walked back into the house.

_ONE WEEK LATER _

Alexis dropped her suitcase on the floor of the bedroom, and flopped down on the bed.

"Sooooo nice to be home" She said, laughing as she didn't even bother to change out of the clothing she had been wearing the past day.

"We have to pick up Xander" Zane said, turning on the light.

"Not until tomorrow, I say we get some well deserved rest" Alexis said, pulling down the bed.

"By the way, a present from one publicist" Zane said, throwing her a magazine.

Opening to the bookmarked page, she didn't get how it was a wedding present, until she read the article.

_The joint publicist of Mr. and Mrs. Truesdale refused to comment on the wedding, remarking that it was "None of your business or mine what my clients are planning on their special day" _

"That is one great present" Alexis said, turning over and closing her eyes.

Three years later:

Alexis rolled over in her bed as she picked up the phone; Zane was at a dueling meeting for all of the people who were in the top ten spots (Alexis was currently at rank 16).

"Hello" she said groggily.

"Mrs. Truesdale, how wonderful to see I caught you at home" a voice said in French.

"Who is this?" Alexis asked, also in French.

"Jamison, anyway, congratulations: this child isn't a bastard. I heard it was a girl, and I believe I have found the perfect agreement to settle our little issue"

"Jamison, I did research, the amount was approximately one million dollars, was it not?" Alexis asked.

"Yes that is the price: why, have you found a way to pay it back?" He asked.

Alexis was silent for a moment, and then responded.

"Actually I did some research, because of the death of my grandmother, and the fact that I was born in Japan, you cannot hold me responsible for any past mistakes of my family- you may take it up with the bank, but you have no hold over me, Goodbye Jamison, and I hope you rot in hell" Alexis said, slamming the phone down as hard as she could.

"That was violent" Zane said, walking into the room.

"Sorry, I was squashing a bug, a big disgusting bug" Alexis said, smiling as she settled back into the best sleep she had in a long time.

Zane went to check on Xander, who at three years old, was sleeping in what he called his "big boy" bed.

"Xander, are you still awake?" Zane asked quietly.

Xander pulled the cover's from over his head, and nodded while sucking his thumb.

"Its late, you should be sleeping" Zane said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Xander turned on his lamp, and sat up.

"I was waiting for you" Xander said, hugging his cyber end dragon plushy.

"I was just at a meeting, go back to sleep" Zane said, pulling the three year olds hair into a small ponytail at the back of his neck.

"Daddy, Mommy said I was going to have a little sister" Xander asked, lying back into bed.

"Yes you are" Zane said, turning off the lamp.

"Can I help pick her out, when are we going to get her?" Xander asked.

"That's not how it works… the stork is going to deliver her to us in a few months" Zane said, not ready to explain the birds and the bees to his son in the middle of the night.

"Oh, okay, well, tell the stork that I want my sister to be strong like you and mommy, and a good duelist, but not better than me!" Xander said, throwing his arms in the air.

"I'll tell the stork that, now go to sleep" Zane said, tucking the little boy into bed and giving him a kiss on the forehead.

"Night daddy, I love you" Xander said, smiling and closing his eyes.

"I love you too" Zane said, shutting off the hallway light.

The true sign of a writer is knowing when to stop.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for you all, I'm a crappy writer!

So there will be two bonus chapters (coming out at my discretion) and a sequel (not coming out for a while)

Until then,

10join

Fei!


	21. A VERY RAW preview of the new story

Preview to the new story: Savor the taste, your not getting much more until February break.

Side Note: The doctor gave me some medicine that worked! I'm no longer half deaph!

The door opened slightly, and then just as quickly slammed shut.

"Xander, I know you're there," Alexis said, almost laughing.

"How did you know it was me?" Xander asked, walking into the room.

"Because your sister isn't smart enough to check if I'm awake before sneaking into the room" Alexis crossed her arms and turned on a lamp, the clock read six in the morning.

"Sorry, but Nick dared me too" Xander apologized.

"And if Nick dared you to cross the ocean, would you do that too?" Alexis said, mock angry.

"She stole my cards" Xander explained, embarrassed.

This made Alexis laugh, she gestured for Xander to come near her.

"She hides everything in the back of her closet, in a pink shoebox" She whispered in his ear.

"Thank you mom" He said, visualizing his little sisters closet.

"Now go get it, and keep an eye on your sister, I'll be up in a few hours" Alexis said, doing some mental math and realizing she had only gotten four hours of sleep the past night.

Alexis patted him on the head softly. Xander jumped slightly at his mothers touch, and then ran out of the room smiling.

She went to shut off the lamp, but another hand turned on the opposite one.

"What time is it?" a scratchy voice asked.

"You have a few more hours until you need to go to work, just try to get some sleep" Alexis whispered, reaching over to turn off the light.

It had only been an hour when the door crashed open, and a tiny brown haired child ran into the room.

"MOMMY! Xander was digging around in my room!" Nicolette screamed, rushing into the room.

"Nick, why did you steal your brothers cards?" Alexis asked tired.

"I didn't steal them! He left them in my room last night! And he's going to destroy my stuff!" Nicolette screamed.

"Xander doesn't understand if he's making a mess, he's just thinking about his cards, just give them back to him" Zane ordered, turning on a lamp.

"Xander, I know where your cards are!" Nicolette screamed, running out of the room.

"Zane, you have a meeting" Alexis reminded.

"Why do they hold meetings the mornings after a duel that runs to two in the morning, I'll never understand" Zane grumbled, rolling out of bed and walking over to the bathroom.

"You could retire if you wanted to, stop complaining, you like it" Alexis laughed and got out of bed to check up on the children.

Zane rolled his eyes, and looked in the mirror.

"I hate my job, I hate my job, I hate my job so much" he lied to himself. Then he laughed, he didn't hate his job, quite the opposite, he was in his second to last year as a pro league duelist. Duelists were forced to retire at thirty five, and although he held the record for the most years on top (five sweet years as number one), he was also going to be forced into early retirement soon.

"Lex, just because you retired early, doesn't mean we all will" Zane said loudly enough for her to hear.

"I retired because of the dumb new rules that its unhealthy to duel on a professional grade duel disk while pregnant," Alexis yelled, barging in on him without any concern.

Yes, you heard it here first, for some reason, being knocked around and exposed to explosions is unhealthy when you're pregnant… whatever moron **didn't** think of that shouldn't have children.

"Your not pregnant now" He taunted.

"Lets see, a ten year old, a seven year old, and a one year old, when did you expect me to go back into the league. Your going to duel until you hit the maximum age, I'm going to make sure our children don't become like Hitomi Phoenix, okay?" Alexis said, nudging him out of the way so she could start putting on her makeup.

"Hitomi is a mix of the horrible features of both her parents," Zane said, thinking of the blue eyed girl.

At eight years old, Hitomi Phoenix was both obnoxious and spoiled thanks to her genes and doting father. A truly beautiful girl, with white hair and ice blue eyes. Much to her fathers despair and Zane's amusement, she had no apparent dueling talent.

"True, but Xander seems to have taken a liking to her, and we can't interfere if Xander feels close to someone" Alexis said, her voice going low as it always did when this subject came up.

"Alexis, our son has a slight case of aspersers syndrome, he's not retarded" Zane reassured her, his voice also going low.

"Look, I'm not saying that he is, but he doesn't like to be touched, he obsesses over duel monster cards like there worth more than his life, he hates to talk to people" Alexis said, listing his symptoms.

"So he's a bit antisocial, what's so important about that? He'll be fine, his dueling skills are on par with the pros" Zane said implying a topic that was very taboo with his wife.

"He's ten years old, look at Edo, he isn't entering the pro leagues early because spending more than five years in that hell hole makes people crazy" Alexis argued.

It was the same thing every week, Zane insisted that his son was ready, and Alexis would say that he wasn't.

"Nick is going to be ten soon" Zane said changing the subject.

"We're running out of time" Alexis said, the first summer was arriving.

"Three years, we still have time to figure it out" Zane said, placing a hand carefully on Alexis's shoulder.

"And what if we don't?" Alexis asked.

"Then we'll still have eight to eleven years to figure it out" Zane said harshly.

"Jamison isn't going to give us a choice you know, he threatened to spread our financial situation as a scandal, to tell everyone what price we might have to pay, but he would make himself look as a victim. I'm not subjecting Nick to something like that, the name was a bad enough demand" Alexis said uncomfortably, she had been married for nearly ten years, and still she was not comfortable with talking about Jamison. The fact that he had taken legal action against them, and they were the branch of the Rhodes family most financially ready to support demands had worsened their case. 

They were in debt, a big decades old debt. One that they weren't able to pay back in money.

"The name was a threat, and you were planning on naming her after a relative of yours anyway" Zane said.

"He's taunting us Zane, and I'm not going to let her go without a fight" Alexis said, looking at the picture on the counter.

Alexis and Zane, with Nicolette and Xander holding baby Luca on their laps.

"How is he supposed to taunt us, he already has everything he wants from us" Zane said quietly.

"Because he's a bastard, and that's how he likes to do things, he plays with you, makes you uncomfortable, asserts his position, and then goes in for the kill.

"he's talking about a marriage, not a cat and mouse situation, and I understand it's a touchy subject, but if you could please just tell me what he says that makes you so uncomfortable, I'd appreciate it" Zane said.

He was talking about the three words Jamison said without fail at the end of each phone call, ones that would make Alexis go catatonic for a moment, and then cry her eyes out. Zane didn't know what they were, and although he had asked more times than he could count, she had refused to answer.

"I don't want to talk about it, Next time he calls, you can listen in if you want, but it's just going to make you uncomfortable." Alexis said, hearing a slight cry from outside the room.

Zane's heart sped up, the call was coming soon. But what had triggered this change of heart?

"I'll get him" Alexis said, walking into Luca's room.

Little Luca was almost a year old, and he was definitely the most unusual looking of their three children. The first of the three to inherit their mothers blond hair, he got his dad's blue green eyes, and didn't look like either of them. He looked, oddly enough, like his eldest uncle.

"Luca, baby you know the best times to cut in, you're so smart" She said, walking over to the crib nestled in the corner of Xander's room.

He cried out again, a sharp baby cry.

"I see you're awake…" Alexis said, picking up the tiny baby and smelling him.

Nothing.

She grabbed a bottle from the desk behind her.

Nothing.

"Did you hear us arguing? Is that it? Good boy, Mommy doesn't want to talk about that French pig anymore, especially with Daddy" She said, bouncing the baby up and down.

He instantly quieted down, and Alexis carried him into the kitchen, where Xander and Nicolette were slurping down leftover noodles.

"I would have made you two something if you had asked" Alexis said, placing Luca in a highchair and placing down some cheerios for the teething baby to eat.

"Noodles are better when frozen over night Mom" Xander said.

"And you and Daddy were talking in low voices, we know by now not to interrupt you when that happens" Nicolette smiled and resumed shoving the cold noodles in her mouth.

Alexis grabbed her cereal and poured herself a bowl. Even after ten years, she still hated cooking.

Zane walked into the room wearing a grey suit, looking frustrated.

"Have you seen my briefcase?" He asked.

Alexis pointed to the microwave. The black leather bag was sitting on top of it.

"Thank you, I'll be back late again, if he calls, tell me" Zane said, giving Nicolette and Luca a kiss on the head and sending a smile to Xander.

They were awaiting the phone call that came once every six months without fail. Usually in the dead of night, and never just to say hello.

A horrible conversation with Jamison. He would speak to whoever answered the phone, then to both of them, then Zane only, then Alexis only.

The conversation never ended with a pleasant goodbye. It ended with three horrible words uttered with a laugh from Jamison.

On your knees.

They brought up painful memories from the past and even worse predictions for the future.

Nicolette was supposed to marry Jamison Jr. A boy who was three years older, and thousands of miles away- and there was no way to stop it.

A/N:

This story is going to be told in alternating flashbacks, in universe, and flashFOWARDS.

The main plot points are: 

Nicolette's engagement to Jamison Jr.

What happened in the past between Alexis and Jamison.

Zane's career and its untimely end, and his involvement with Kaiba Corp

Xander's aspersers syndrome, and his friendship with Edo's daughter.

and of course, a special surprise with Atticus.

Of course, I tend to tangent- I will deviate from the planned plot (yes, I have a pseudo plan!)

Till then

10join

Fei!


End file.
